Digital OOH vs Classic Billboards in Canada

Which is bigger in Canada now, digital or classic?

Digital, decisively. It passed 58% of Canadian out-of-home revenue in 2025, up from 55%, and exceeded 60% in Q1 2026. Classic is now the minority format in this market.

That puts Canada well ahead of the United States, where digital sits at around 36.3% of the OOH market. Canadian media owners digitised earlier and more completely, which is why a national Canadian OOH campaign can be almost entirely digital while the equivalent American plan still needs classic inventory.

Dollar figures from COMMB's 2025 Industry Annual Report; growth rates from COMMB's revenue reporting release, 23 February 2026. Figures in CAD.

The roadside line is the one worth reading twice. Roadside overall grew 2.3%, but digital roadside grew 8.4%. The category is not growing so much as converting.

What does digital give you that classic does not?

Four things, and they are the reason Canadian planning has shifted so far toward screens.

• Dayparting. Canadian digital inventory can be bought by hour, and COMMB measures across 192 hourly dayparts, so it is genuinely plannable rather than notional. A commuter message at 8am and a different one at 6pm is standard practice here.
• Changeable copy. Creative can be swapped mid-flight without reprinting or reposting anything. Different copy by market, by weather, by day of week.
• Faster to market. No print, no posting crew, no installation window. A digital campaign can be live in days where classic needs weeks.
• Ad-play level measurement. COMMB measures digital at ad-play level, accounting for speed, visibility and dwell time, rather than by face over a cycle.

When is classic still the right buy in Canada?

More often than the digital share suggests. Four briefs where a printed poster beats a screen.

• When you want permanent presence. A classic face is yours for the whole cycle. A digital screen gives you a share of a loop, which on a busy site can be one play in ten. If the objective is to own a location in the public mind, classic delivers something digital structurally cannot.
• When the format is the idea. Wraps, murals, hand-painted work, special builds and anything three-dimensional. These are classic by nature and among the most memorable work the medium produces.
• Where there are no screens. Digital concentration is highest in the major Canadian markets. Smaller markets, rural highway routes and many transit environments remain substantially classic, and if that is where your audience is, that is what you buy.
• Where municipal rules bite. Toronto taxes electronic third party signs at a far higher rate than static — up to $52,259.36 a year for electronic signs of 75 m² or more against $1,577 for the smallest class — and several Montreal boroughs restrict or ban billboards outright. Availability is not uniform.

How do the costs compare?

Not on a like-for-like basis, because you are buying different things. The comparison people usually want — cost per thousand — hides the two costs that actually differ.

Classic carries real production cost. Print and posting are a genuine line item, and on a short classic campaign they can be a material share of total budget. Digital has effectively none once the creative exists.

Digital carries share-of-voice dilution. You are buying a slot in a loop. A one-in-six rotation and a one-in-twelve rotation on the same screen are different products at different prices, and a quoted DOOH CPM that does not state the rotation is incomplete.

As with everything in Canadian OOH, there is no published rate card for either format. No Canadian body — COMMB, IAB Canada or any media owner — publishes rates, so both are negotiated. What we can tell you is which format gives a specific brief more for the same money, and show the working.

Does the measurement differ?

Yes, and it is worth understanding before comparing two plans. COMMB measures both, but not identically.

Classic inventory is measured by face — the audience passing a specific board over the cycle. Digital is measured at ad-play level, with impressions accounting for speed, visibility and dwell time on each individual play.

COMMB's ROADMAP tool provides reach and frequency down to the individual asset for both. So the two can be compared on a plan — but the underlying units are different, and a digital impression is not the same object as a classic one.

One creative constraint that only applies to digital: Toronto's Municipal Code sets a minimum message duration of 10 seconds for third party electronic static copy, and in Quebec, French must display at least twice as long as any other language on dynamic signage. Both are hard limits on how a loop can be built.