Ströer: Out-of-home advertising’s share of the German advertising market exceeds 10% for the first time. DOOH grows by 17% in the first half of 2025.

Ströer SE & Co. KGaA continued to perform well in the first six months of 2025. Despite challenging conditions in the advertising market and strong figures for the prior-year period, the Group managed to further cement its market position, making significant gains in the digital out-of-home advertising business (DOOH) in particular. Revenue in the core DOOH and OOH business advanced by 7% to EUR 455m. This came against a backdrop of high comparative figures for the prior-year period (Q2 2024 OOH Media: up by 20.6%) thanks, in part, to the EURO 2024 soccer tournament that was hosted by Germany in June and July of last year. Consolidated revenue (total) rose by 2% to EUR 980m in the first half of 2025. EBITDA (adjusted) improved to EUR 266m (H1 2024: EUR 263m).

The positive performance of the core OOH business and the continuous shift in the media mix continued to translate into a steadily growing share attributable to DOOH and OOH in the first six months of 2025, with that share exceeding 10% of the overall market for the first time. The strong growth of DOOH was the key factor in this uptrend.

DOOH advanced by around 17% and programmatic out-of-home (pDOOH) by 26%. This means that the revenue share contributed by DOOH to Ströer’s out-of-home advertising business in the first six months climbed to a new record for the first half of a year of around 41%. The sustained, long-term growth of our OOH advertising business is being fueled by the quality of the digital infrastructure and especially by the deployment of software, data, and artificial intelligence (AI). 

With AI now being used globally in all business processes, we are expecting our global business data platform, Statista, to see a strong uplift. For several quarters, we have been developing Statista into a mission-critical data supplier for AI-based knowledge management systems. Access to verified, proprietary data pools or curated data pools enhanced with meta information is crucially important for large language models (LLMs) and enterprise GPTs (generative pre-trained transformers) in order for them to be able to deliver comprehensive and reliable results incorporating statistical business data.

Integrating data from Statista in AI models via APIs (application programming interfaces) and MCP (model context protocol) servers represents a quantum leap in terms of the robustness and quality of data in enterprise applications. Statista is thus evolving from a high-quality, license-based tool for experts into a highly scalable, integrated data infrastructure that will see exponential use going forward compared with the current situation.

Groundbreaking agreements with leading AI providers and platforms – Microsoft 365 Copilot, Perplexity, and Canva – have allowed Statista to successfully lay the foundations for positioning itself as a supplier of high-quality data for professional research, as we move into the AI era. Equally important pilot projects are already taking place to facilitate integration in the knowledge management systems of leading global players from the fields of strategy consulting, telecommunications, manufacturing, and media.

“The fact that out-of-home advertising has exceeded a 10% share of the German advertising market for the first time is testimony to both the strength of this advertising format in Germany and the strength of our strategic focus. Our growth is outstripping that of the market, with a key factor being the use of inhouse AI applications. We are reaping the rewards of having invested in our digital out-of-home advertising infrastructure at an early stage and of being a technology leader in programmatic placement in OOH”, says Christian Schmalzl, Co-CEO of Ströer. “Thanks to Statista’s evolution into an integrated data layer for AI-based knowledge management systems, coupled with our existing connections to leading LLMs, we have created the key conditions over the last few months to allow us and our partners to participate in the exponential growth of the AI market. We are optimistic overall and are standing by our forecast for 2025 as a whole. Nonetheless, we are attaching slightly more weight to our performance in the fourth quarter as business over the summer has been quieter than originally expected.”

OOH Media

Revenue in the core OOH Media business rose by 7% to EUR 455m in the first half of 2025 (H1 2024: EUR 424m). This growth was powered by Digital OOH, which saw a rise of 17%, and programmatic DOOH, which we managed to boost by 26%. EBITDA (adjusted) increased from EUR 190m to EUR 203m in the first half of 2025. The EBITDA (adjusted) margin remained at a high level of around 45%.

Digital & Dialog Media

Revenue in the Digital & Dialog Media segment came to around EUR 416m in the first half of 2025 (H1 2024: EUR 419m). The drivers of revenue performance for the segment were somewhat mixed. EBITDA (adjusted) for the first six months of 2025 amounted to EUR 59m (H1 2024: EUR 69m).

DaaS & E-Commerce

Revenue in the DaaS & E-Commerce segment was virtually on a par with the first half of the prior year at EUR 176m (H1 2024: EUR 178m). Statista generated revenue growth of 3.3% (3.6% adjusted for currency effects). The increasingly challenging market environment – particularly in retail and e-commerce – impacted on AsamBeauty. The segment’s EBITDA (adjusted) was virtually unchanged compared with the first six months of 2024 at around EUR 20m (H1 2024: EUR 21m). Ströer is expecting a retail-led recovery in the second half of 2025.

Disclaimer

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" regarding Ströer SE & Co. KGaA ("Ströer") or the Ströer Group, including assessments, estimates and forecasts regarding the financial position, business strategy, plans and objectives of management and the future business activities of Ströer or the Ströer Group. Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the results of operations, profitability, performance or achievements of Ströer or the Ströer Group to be materially different from any future results of operations, profitability, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release and are based on numerous assumptions that may also prove to be incorrect. Ströer makes no representation and assumes no liability with respect to the fair presentation, completeness, correctness, adequacy or accuracy of the information and assessments contained herein. The information contained in this press release is subject to change without notice. It may be incomplete or abbreviated and may not contain all material information relating to Ströer or the Ströer Group. Ströer does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements or other information contained herein, neither as a result of new information, future events nor otherwise.