• by Erik Sass , November 12, 2013

Outdoor advertising companies have encountered a wave of resistance in recent months -- almost all at the local level, as city and county governments impose restrictions on new billboard construction and conversion of static displays to digital surfaces. In the latest such move, this week a committee of the Philadelphia city government approved a bill tightening regulations for outdoor ads.

The new rules (which will be submitted for a vote by the full City Council in the next few months) include a total ban on new billboards of any type, static or digital, effectively capping the number of outdoor ad displays. Moreover, they aim to reduce the total number of outdoor ads, with another rule requiring outdoor ad companies to dismantle two static billboards for every static board they convert to digital. The rules also restrict such conversions to certain areas of the city, and put limits on digital billboard brightness. Last but certainly not least, they would raise outdoor advertising licensing fees to boost city revenues.

Philadelphia has plenty of company among municipal governments large and small. In July, Baltimore passed a new billboard tax, charging outdoor advertisers $5 per square foot for static billboards and $15 per square foot for digital displays, which is currently being contested by Clear Channel in court.

Clear Channel is also currently fighting to overturn a decision by a California Superior Court banning 77 digital billboards in Los Angeles. In April, the court ruled that a deal struck by the operators with the Los Angeles City Council in 2007, allowing the conversion of hundreds of static billboards to digital displays, violated the city's own laws. Meanwhile, the city council -- with an eye to potential revenues from digital billboards -- has ordered a “Visioning” group to formulate a new policy that would possibly allow some new digital signs to be built, perhaps on city property.

Clear Channel has also encountered some resistance to a proposal to convert a number of static boards on Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority property along I-93 between Boston and Somerville to digital displays.