oOh!media has announced its financial results for the half year ended 30 June 2021.
oOh! successfully leveraged the continuing recovery in Out of Home audiences during the period to deliver a 23 percent lift in revenue to $251.6 million AUD compared to the prior corresponding period.
The strong revenue uplift translated to underlying EBITDA more than tripling to $33.3 million, additionally supported through ongoing cost discipline and negotiated fixed rent abatement with commercial partners.
At the same time, oOh! continues to implement its strategy with a clear focus on its core Out of Home assets, continued digitisation of core sites and audience-focused selling.
While Covid-19 and associated periodic lockdowns continue to cause near term uncertainty, oOh! remains in a unique position to leverage audiences through the scale and mix of their assets and continue revenue recovery as market conditions improve.
Chief Executive Officer Cathy O’Connor says oOh! delivered a strong first half result which demonstrated the scale and diversity of the company’s assets and leverage to audience recovery across its key formats.
“We have seen strong audience growth post lockdowns which has led to a significant turnaround in revenue for the half, particularly in our key formats of Road, Retail and Street Furniture in Australia and New Zealand.
“That has also been a function of our strong suburban and regional network where we continue to provide unrivalled reach and frequency for advertisers.
“In Australia audience levels were consistent up to May 2021 before declining as a result of the Melbourne lockdown in June. Overall revenue has held consistently at 80 percent of 2019 levels with revenue in Road performing particularly strongly at 116 percent of the first half of 2019. New Zealand also performed at or slightly above 2019 levels.
“As conditions have become more fluid during the pandemic, we are seeing advertisers capitalising on the flexibility of digital out of home (DOOH). With the largest quality digital network across the region, oOh! is well positioned to respond.”
Revenue for Q3 is currently pacing 38 percent higher than the corresponding period in 2020 and 74 percent of Q3 2019.
Forward visibility remains uncertain given the ongoing effects of Covid-19 lockdowns and associated movement restrictions, however oOh! expects that when the current lockdowns end there will be a strong recovery in audiences and associated revenues as has been the case previously.
