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India’s out-of-home (OOH) advertising industry is growing faster than the global average, highlighting the country’s expanding urban infrastructure and rising appetite for digital screens. While the global outdoor ad market is forecast to grow at about 5% annually through 2034, India is expected to climb 5.8% a year, one of the strongest rates worldwide, according to latest IMARC Group data.
This faster pace reflects how new airports, metro corridors, and smart-city projects are fueling fresh inventory and advertiser demand. As developed markets plateau, India’s mix of scale, digitisation, and mobility-led audiences is positioning it as the next key growth engine for the global OOH ecosystem.
Where India stands
India’s outdoor advertising market, though modest by global standards, is now expanding at one of the fastest rates worldwide. The IMARC Group values India’s OOH sector at about USD 1.34 billion in 2024, expected to rise to USD 2.21 billion by 2033 at a CAGR of 5.8 percent, more than the global average.
Grand View Research places India’s digital OOH (DOOH) market at USD 282.6 million in 2024, growing to USD 630 million by 2030 at nearly 14 percent CAGR. Domestic reports, such as EY’s latest assessment, peg India’s overall OOH size at INR 5,920 crore (around USD 720 million) for 2024, reflecting double-digit growth from the previous year.
The United States continues to dominate global outdoor advertising, with the Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA) pegging 2024 revenues at USD 9.1 billion, a 4.5 percent annual increase and the highest in its history. About one-third of this now comes from digital formats, underscoring how deeply programmatic and data-driven buying have penetrated the American market.
China, meanwhile, remains a powerhouse. The World Out of Home Organization reported that the country’s outdoor ad spends exceeded RMB 200 billion (roughly USD 28 billion) in 2023, up 14 percent year-on-year. Transit and digital screens across high-density urban centers are the key growth levers. Mordor Intelligence forecasts a 5 percent CAGR for China’s OOH and DOOH market between 2025 and 2030, confirming its long-term momentum.
In Europe, the United Kingdom and France are leading contributors. The UK recorded outdoor ad revenues of £1.4 billion (about USD 1.7 billion) in 2024, according to Outsmart and PwC, with digital OOH accounting for 66 percent of that total. France’s market is smaller but shows rapid digitization, with Grand View Research estimating national DOOH revenues in the high hundreds of millions of dollars in 2024, driven by premium city and transport formats.
So, compared to the United States’ US$9 billion market or China’s tens of billions, India’s OOH remains relatively small. Yet this scale also represents untapped potential, particularly as the country urbanizes, builds new infrastructure, and expands its transit networks.
Growth drivers shaping Indian OOH
India’s OOH growth is anchored in a confluence of macroeconomic and structural factors. Rapid urbanization and large-scale infrastructure projects, including new airports, metro corridors, and expressways, are steadily expanding high-visibility inventory across cities. Airports and transit hubs, in particular, have emerged as premium spaces for advertisers, commanding top-tier rates and driving sophisticated, tech-integrated campaigns. The country’s smart city initiatives have also accelerated the deployment of digital and LED-based formats, making out-of-home increasingly dynamic and data-enabled.
Digital adoption has gathered pace as screen costs fall and connectivity improves. Local operators are transitioning from static hoardings to digital panels, and major media owners are investing in programmatic systems that allow advertisers to run context-triggered campaigns based on variables like time, weather, and location.
“Digitisation is being driven by urbanisation, smart city initiatives, and the rise of high-footfall transit hubs like airports and metro stations,” says Sarvesh Purohit, Senior Director, Strategy, GroupM OOH Solutions. “Programmatic DOOH is gaining traction, allowing advertisers to serve dynamic, real-time content based on contextual triggers such as weather, traffic, or time of day.”
The festive economy, political advertising, and major sporting events add periodic surges in spending, further buoying demand. “Globally, premium brands across luxury, automotive, and lifestyle categories regularly use OOH to build stature and connect with urban audiences,” observes Rohit Chopra, COO, Times Innovative Media Ltd. “India now also has world-class infrastructure like roadside DOOH networks, premium rapid transport systems, and aesthetically enhanced static media formats. The growth in Indian OOH is likely to accelerate as brands experiment and adopt new approaches.”
Persistent challenges limiting scale
Despite its strong growth story, India’s outdoor advertising industry continues to wrestle with structural bottlenecks that limit its scalability. Regulatory fragmentation remains one of the biggest hurdles. OOH advertising is governed by a patchwork of municipal laws, with non-uniform permit regimes and frequent policy reversals. “What’s legal in one city may be banned in another,” explains Dipankar Sanyal, CEO, Platinum Outdoor. “These inconsistencies create uncertainty, hinder national rollouts, and slow new investment.”
High capital expenditure is another constraint. The installation and maintenance of digital screens entail significant upfront costs, compounded by power and operational challenges, particularly in regions with unreliable electricity supply. Much of India’s inventory is also controlled by small, regional operators, limiting scale and standardization. The lack of unified audience measurement further undermines advertiser confidence. Without credible, data-backed ROI metrics, many brands hesitate to commit large budgets to the medium.
“There’s a need for stronger regulatory frameworks around safety, design standards, and ethical placement,” adds Sanyal. “Talent and governance gaps persist, and they prevent the Indian OOH sector from matching the efficiency and professionalism of mature markets.” Purohit echoes a similar sentiment, noting that India’s OOH sector remains highly fragmented, with thousands of local vendors and inconsistent formats, which makes national campaigns difficult to scale and measure.
Chopra agrees that the next phase of growth must be rooted in trust and transparency. “The onus is on the industry to continue building credibility by investing in data-backed media, creating high-quality assets, and strengthening measurement and accountability. A balance of advertiser conviction and industry commitment will truly take Indian OOH to global standards.”
The road ahead
The path to unlocking India’s OOH potential will depend on its ability to address fragmentation, standardize measurement, and accelerate digital adoption. The industry is already witnessing the emergence of unified platforms, which integrate inventory management with AI-driven audience analytics, enabling advertisers to track dwell time, attention, and engagement. “Tools such as Roadstar are already enabling more scientific, data-led insights on audience movement and campaign performance,” notes Chopra. “This evolution is helping brands make rational, informed investment decisions and reinforcing OOH as a measurable and accountable medium, not just a creative one.”
For India to move closer to global parity, the OOH ecosystem will need cohesive action between regulators, industry bodies, and private operators. Unified audience metrics, transparent pricing, and nationwide programmatic adoption could make India one of the fastest-growing contributors to global outdoor advertising in the next decade.
“The emotional and cultural appeal of large static billboards remains immense,” adds Chopra. “India’s OOH evolution shouldn’t be about speed, it should be about doing it right. The focus should be on creating something uniquely Indian yet globally competitive.”
Ultimately, the world’s OOH industry is on an upward trajectory, but India’s rise will depend on how quickly it can organize itself to capture the opportunity.