How a digital screen actually pays in South Africa.
DOOH explained — what it is, what drives the return, and the model that puts a screen in your venue at zero upfront cost.
DOOH — digital out-of-home — is advertising shown on digital screens in public and commercial spaces like malls, stadiums, billboards and venues. A venue earns from it by selling advertising slots on its screen. Under a revenue-share model the screen supplier funds, installs and sells the advertising, and the venue takes a share of the revenue with no upfront cost; under outright ownership the venue funds the screen and keeps all the ad revenue itself.
What DOOH is, in one line
Out-of-home advertising used to mean a printed billboard that stayed the same for a month. DOOH replaces the print with a digital screen: content changes remotely, multiple advertisers share the same screen across the day, and slots can be sold automatically. The screen stops being a static poster and becomes a piece of sellable, reschedulable inventory.
What actually drives the return
A DOOH screen's earning power comes down to four things. Understand these and you can judge any screen's revenue potential.
| Driver | What it means |
|---|---|
| Footfall | How many people pass the screen. More eyes means each advertising slot is worth more. |
| Dwell time | How long they linger in view — a food court or queue beats a corridor people walk straight through. |
| Audience quality | Who the viewers are. A premium mall or business district commands higher rates than general footfall. |
| Fill rate | How many of the available slots are actually sold. Programmatic selling pushes this far higher than manual sales. |
The zero-CapEx model: how a venue earns with no upfront cost
The barrier to DOOH has always been the capital cost of the screen. The revenue-share model removes it. The supplier funds, installs, fills and maintains the screen; the venue provides the wall and the foot traffic and earns a passive share of the advertising revenue. No CapEx, no maintenance bill, no sales effort — the venue monetises space that currently earns nothing.
It's the right fit when the venue has genuine footfall but doesn't want to carry the cost or risk of buying and running a screen. The trade-off against owning the screen outright is straightforward:
| Model | Upfront cost | Who sells the ads | Venue keeps |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue share | None | BrightSpot | A share of revenue |
| Install only (owned) | Full screen cost | The venue | All revenue |
| Hybrid | Partial | Shared | A larger share |
Why programmatic changes the maths
Programmatic DOOH (pDOOH) lets advertisers buy screen slots automatically through an ad exchange, the same way online display ads are bought — no hand-negotiated placements. For a venue this matters because it lifts the fill rate: instead of a salesperson finding local advertisers one at a time, the screen taps into national and programmatic demand, so more of the inventory sells and at better rates. A programmatic-ready screen is simply worth more than one that isn't.
Frequently asked
What is DOOH advertising?
Digital out-of-home advertising — ads on digital screens in public and commercial spaces like malls, stadiums, billboards and venues, rather than on TV, mobile or print. Content updates remotely and can be sold programmatically.
How does a venue make money from DOOH?
By selling advertising slots on its screen. Under revenue-share the supplier funds, installs and sells the ads and the venue takes a share with no upfront cost; under ownership the venue keeps all revenue but funds the screen.
What is programmatic DOOH?
pDOOH lets advertisers buy screen slots automatically through an ad exchange, like online ads, instead of negotiating each placement by hand. It raises how much of a screen's inventory sells, and at what rate.
Find out what your space could earn.
Tell us the venue and the footfall; we'll model the screen, the placement and the revenue split — including the zero-CapEx option.
Request a revenue projection →