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The year is closing with some sudden big steps toward the long-awaited consolidation of the digital out-of-home market, as Projectiondesign, RMG Networks, Symon Communications and Arbitron all look forward to 2013 under new ownership, writes Screenmediamag.com editor Barnaby Page.

But, while it has often been observed that there are opportunities in the fragmented DOOH business for a deep-pocketed company to build a clear leader through acquisition, the motives for the deals seem to differ.

In a straightforward attempt to enter new markets, Belgium’s publicly-traded LED screen maker Barco is taking a 61 percent share in Norway’s Projectiondesign from private equity firm Herkules Capital.

Barco said that the acquisition would help to progress its “strategy to expand into the mid-segment of its target markets” – in other words, provide it with product offerings suitable for users smaller than the arenas and similar large venues where Barco kit is most often found.

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The U.S. remains the biggest market for digital out-of-home media, but China is closing on it rapidly – and American growth is largely driven by digital billboards, rather than place-based digital signage networks, according to the latest analysis from PQ Media.

Although the U.S. accounts for about $2bn of the worldwide total of $7bn in DOOH advertising revenue, it lags behind the global 15 percent growth rate, says PQ. An increase in American operator revenue of around 11 percent in 2011 was due in large part to 20 percent growth in revenue from digital billboards, while revenue from place-based networks rose by only 7.5 percent, thanks in part to “substantial slowdown in the cinema category”.

By contrast, China is the fastest-growing market, with total DOOH revenues jumping nearly 40 percent in 2011 to $1.44bn. China and Japan are also the next biggest after the U.S. in terms of current size, while Britain leads the European market and Brazil in Latin America. Thailand and Brazil have the highest penetration of DOOH into the overall out-of-home market, with digital accounting for half of all out-of-home revenues in the former and a third in the latter.

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