Investment in digital billboards is continuing apace in the U.S. despite economic chills and frequent opposition from local governments, with both Clear Channel Outdoor and Lamar Advertising this week confirming extensive rollouts.

At Clear Channel, “we now expect that we will be deploying 160 or more digital displays this year. This is up from the target of 120 that we noted earlier in the year,” CFO Tom Casey said in an earnings presentation transcribed on the Seeking Alpha Website.

To date, Clear Channel has gone live with just over 700 digital billboards in 37 markets.

However, Casey cautioned, “there’s a very local process that needs to be choreographed with the local regulatory authorities. We’ve had a very good success in the first half [of 2011, and] we’d like to continue that success, but it’s challenging to know precisely whether you’re going to be receiving your permits. Once we do receive the permits, we move quickly to put the board up and get it lit up.”

Clear Channel Outdoor saw revenue for the second quarter reach $789m, up 13 percent on the same quarter last year – although nearly half of that increase was thanks to exchange-rate fluctuations. Excluding that effect, Americas and international revenue grew at roughly the same rate, each accounting for approximately half of the total.

Net income was $34m, reversing a net loss of $3m in the second quarter of last year.

At Lamar, meanwhile, more modest second-quarter growth saw net revenue up 2.4 percent year-on-year to $293m and earnings rise 1.9 percent to $133m, on an EBITDA basis.

But that has not stopped the firm powering ahead with expansion of its inventory. In the first six months of this year, Lamar has spent just over $20m on digital billboards, against $17m on non-digital installations – figures that dwarf the respective investments of $4.7m and $2.5m in the first half of 2010.

www.clearchanneloutdoor.com
www.lamar.com
www.seekingalpha.com

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