Ron Derby

Media Correspondent

SA’s outdoor media industry has been under heavy scrutiny over the past few months over the legality and illegality of some of the sites used in Johannesburg, as adspend on the media format increases in line with the upswing in the economy.

Media commentator and MD of Starcom, Gordon Patterson, said yesterday that the outdoor industry should take action and put a stop to the vagaries surrounding the legality or illegality of billboards.

"The illegal operators must be stopped, and those agencies and marketers who persist in supporting clearly illegal sites should be brought to task and severe penalties imposed."

He said there had been a lot of talk in the outdoor industry, "but very little action".

"There has been a lot of pointing fingers but unfortunately, as an industry, it does not help," Patterson said.

In September last year the Joburg Property Company presented Out of Home Media SA (OHMSA) with a document detailing 362 sites allegedly erected on council property without the required approvals or rental contracts. In at least one case trees were felled to improve the visibility of billboards.

OHMSA, whose members accrue 90% of national outdoor adspend, said the respective media owners had been contacted and its member companies responded that the vast majority of these sites were covered by specific or blanket contracts.

Primedia Outdoor MD Pete Piccione said that legal action taken against certain operators by municipalities such as Johannesburg and by the National Roads Agency had had reasonable success.

OHMSA executive director Les Holley said the few sites that did not have approval were either removed or applications had been submitted for approval.

"In other instances the sites listed were not even on council land," Holley said.

The country’s outdoor sector was set to be an important medium for the 2010 Soccer World Cup and, in this regard, Patterson said the industry’s issues should be sorted out.

"We simply cannot afford to portray to the world that we live in a lawless society."