News

Playout is now embedded at the heart of OOH delivery. Alight Media, i-media and Limited Space are now adding their inventory to the system. They join the existing digital frames from the founding media owners - Bauer Media Outdoor, Global, JCDecaux and Ocean Outdoor - bolstering Playout’s already extensive coverage. 

Backed by independent verification from PwC/mediasense and delivering proven day-to-day benefits, Playout is now a foundational industry platform for validated, standardised delivery data. It sits alongside SPACE and the Route API; all three developed and run by Adwanted UK. 

A new Playout report shares the latest progress and explains how the OOH sector, overseen by Outsmart and in partnership with Adwanted UK, has collaboratively built a scalable, trusted source of truth for campaign delivery, driving accountability, transparency, and best practice in OOH data assurance.  
 

In March 2023, Playout debuted in the OOH sector as a new industry system to centralise the recording, consolidation and sharing of play data across the UK OOH sector.  

 
What is “play data”?  

Every time an ad is played on a Digital Out of Home screen (DOOH) it generates a record. Playout centralises every record, so you know when and where this happened. More importantly, Playout requires the play data conforms to a defined industry-agreed standard, incorporating basic key information like advertiser, brand, campaign and product identifiers. In short: with Playout, you know exactly how your DOOH campaign was delivered.  
 

Didn’t that information already exist? 

Yes, but media owners each reported it in slightly different ways. And “slightly different” can be a headache for buyers seeking a consolidated view of campaign delivery across multiple DOOH media owners. It might require custom tech integrations, and/or marrying various definitions (all broadly the same but not exactly the same). It was all true data, but buyers had to spend time collating the truth.  
 

How is Playout progressing? 

Alight Media, Bauer Media Outdoor, Global, i-Media, JCDecaux, Limited Space and Ocean Outdoor all use Playout to describe the DOOH adverts they display on 99% of their screens. At the time of writing this amounts to 65 billion rows of data and growing each day. Buyers now have a single source to ingest and analyse this data. It’s all standardised and validated, to produce easy reporting of campaign delivery.  

 
How is the data validated? 

It is meticulous. Every play record is subject to strict formatting, logic, and cross-referencing checks against SPACE inventory, including mandatory field completion, correct formatting and logical timestamp sequencing. Playout enforces a robust validation framework that operates at the record level. Only clean, compliant data enters the system. Any record failing validation is rejected. 

To reinforce confidence in the integrity of the data, Playout underwent independent testing by PwC’s Marketing and Media Owner team (now part of mediasense). Their review included real-time observation of playouts, reconciliation with Media Owner systems and simulated failure scenarios (e.g., switching off screens to confirm no false records were generated). 

The findings were conclusive: Playout accurately reflects real-world ad delivery and reliably rejects non-compliant data. 
 

How is Playout making a difference? 

Play data can be collated and evaluated across different media owners from one place. Media Owners can upload as frequently as every 15 minutes. Once validated, data becomes immediately available to authorised buyers and agencies. This enables proactive monitoring of campaign delivery, driving a more agile OOH ecosystem. 
 
In March 2025, a survey of Media Owners, buyers and third-party technology partners, provided the following feedback: 

100% of buyers and sellers reported increased transparency and efficiency. 92% noted a reduction in manual effort. 80% cited improved decision-making due to better access to data, and nearly half (45%) reported a decrease in cloud computing costs. 

 
What’s next?