Clear Channel Outdoor Americas is an out-of-home advertising company based in New York City with operations throughout the U.S. CCOA is one of two separate business units operating as part of Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc.. The other business unit, Clear Channel International, includes, Europe, Singapore and Latin America. Globally, both CCOA and CCI employ 5,800 people. Following a separation from its former parent company, iHeartMedia, Inc., in May 2019, CCOH, Inc., has operated as an independent, publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange. Across its roadside and street level market footprint, CCOA offers tens of thousands of printed billboards in a variety of formats.
History
Founding and Predecessor Companies
Clear Channel Outdoor Americas was one of the first outdoor advertising companies in the United States and is one of the largest. It has origins in three major predecessor companies: Foster & Kleiser , Patrick Media Outdoor, and Eller Media Company. F&K changed its name to Patrick Media Group after Metromedia sold the company to Patrick Media Group and a major investor group led by General Electric, and it was acquired in turn by Karl Eller in 1995. Alongside this outdoor advertising consolidation, the Mays family in San Antonio, Texas, founded a broadcasting company in 1972, which would become known as Clear Channel Communications. By the mid-90s, Clear Channel Communications owned 43 radio and 16 television stations. Along the way, CCO further consolidated operations by acquiring Universal Outdoor, Donrey, Paxton Outdoor, Ackerley Media, Badger Outdoor, ABC Outdoor, and Hansen Outdoor, to name a few of the larger transactions.
Expansion and iHeartMedia
In November 2005, Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc. and its parent company, Clear Channel Communications, Inc. announced the initial public offering of 35,000,000 shares of Class A common stock of Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings at a price of $18.00 per share, for a total offering of $630,000,000. In 2006, CCOH acquired Interspace Airport Advertising and began operating as Clear Channel Interspace Airports. In 2009, the airports media sales business began operating as Clear Channel Airports. Today, Clear Channel Airports manages advertising and marketing contracts in more than 260 airports across the world. In September 2014, CCO's then-parent parent company changed its name from Clear Channel Communications, Inc. to iHeartMedia. The outdoor advertising entity retained the Clear Channel name to protect that trademark. In 2015, Scott Wells became CEO of Clear Channel Outdoor Americas. In 2016, CCOA proved the effectiveness of the Out-of-Home medium and announced the industry’s first measurable outdoor advertising solution known as CCO RADAR. CCO executed this using aggregated and anonymized mobile location data from privacy compliant data providers. On January 7, 2016, Lamar Advertising Company purchased Clear Channel Outdoor's assets in 5 major U.S. city markets for $458.5 million. In 2016, CCOA introduced the automated ability for advertisers to buy ads on its various digital outdoor formats using computer programs.
Spin Out as an Independent Company
On December 21, 2018, iHeartMedia announced its intent to spin out its majority stake in Clear Channel Outdoor, as part of a proposed reorganization plan to reduce debt and exit its Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The reorganization plan was approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas in January 2019, and was completed in May 2019. This made Clear Channel an independent company, and Clear Channel International CEO William Eccleshare became the new worldwide CEO. He remains in London in addition to his responsibilities as the worldwide CEO, he continues to lead CCI. In 2020, CCOA was one of the OOH industry leaders who stepped forward to deliver coronavirus safety messaging. All of the messages directed audiences to coronavirus.gov, a centralized resource from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Clear Channel Outdoor created new OOH content for the #AloneTogether social distancing campaign. They featured the message on digital billboards across their entire digital OOH network.
