LTA to consolidate management of bus ads under one operator to grow revenue

In a bid to eke out more revenue for the public transport system here, the management of advertisements on public buses as well as at terminals and interchanges will be consolidated under a single operator.

- Kok Yufeng

The move is expected to give advertisers a wider reach and allow the operator to reap economies of scale, said the Land Transport Authority (LTA) in response to queries.

Today, ad spaces on buses and in interchanges are managed by the four public bus operators – SBS Transit (SBST), SMRT, Tower Transit Singapore and Go-Ahead Singapore – which appoint their own partners.

This is set to change with a tender called by LTA on July 2. It said the tender will be awarded in the first quarter of 2025 and more details will be announced then.

It did not address questions about the commercial arrangements under the tender, including who will get to keep the ad revenue. It also did not address questions about the potential financial impact the move may have on the four bus operators.

The public bus system in Singapore uses a contracting model, which means operators bid for contracts and are paid by LTA to run the services. LTA keeps the fares, while the operators get to pocket non-fare revenue, which includes income from advertising and renting out commercial spaces in interchanges.

Similarly, rail operators here have been allowed to run non-transit businesses but the Government began to review this practice in 2017.

In 2019, LTA, for the first time, outsourced advertising rights on the Thomson-East Coast Line to a third party, Asiaray Connect, in a deal that will bring over $140 million in concession fees for the authority over a 16-year term.