Samsung digital taxi top outside Madison Square Garden and the Penn Station entrance, with a Bud Light digital billboard behind, New York, 2025
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Written by Melih KorayReviewed by Melih Koray · Last reviewed October 25, 2026 September 14, 2026 Buyer's Guide

Advertising in New York City: Every Format, Seller and Rule

New York sells seven kinds of out-of-home advertising through five regulators, four counting methods and a short list of owners who do not print prices. This is the decision table: for each format, where it works, who sells it, how the audience is counted, who writes the rules, what the buy unit is and where it loses. Every figure sourced and dated.

NYC advertising, out of home, means choosing among seven formats: Times Square spectaculars, billboards and wallscapes, MTA subway and bus, taxi tops, street furniture, LinkNYC kiosks and vehicle wraps. Each has its own sellers, counting method and regulator. New York was the largest local OOH market in 2025 at $858 million (OAAA, MediaRadar data).

The mistake out-of-town planners make is treating New York as one market with one rate card. It is five markets that happen to share a skyline. The MTA writes its own advertising policy and sells through a single concessionaire; the Taxi and Limousine Commission governs what sits on a cab; the Department of Buildings and the Zoning Resolution decide where a billboard may stand; the Department of Transportation owns the sidewalk furniture and the traffic rules that ban advertising trucks; the Office of Technology and Innovation holds the kiosk franchise. The table below puts all seven formats side by side. Each row links to the deeper guide on this site.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold digital taxi top on a yellow cab outside Madison Square Garden, with the Penn Station entrance and a Bud Light digital billboard behind it, New York, July 2025

Three formats in one frame at the Penn District, July 2025: a digital taxi top, a digital billboard on the Madison Square Garden facade, and the Penn Station entrance, whose subway screens OUTFRONT sells under the MTA concession and whose Amtrak areas Intersection sells. Photograph from Firefly's New York campaign archive, shown with permission.

Which Out-of-Home Formats Can You Buy in New York City?

Seven, if you count by who sells them and who regulates them rather than by what they look like. The table is the page; the sections after it explain the two columns that matter most, the regulator and the counting method. Sellers are listed as published on their own New York pages, read 24 October 2026, and no owner on this page is quoted a price. The owners are checked against what they actually control in the directory of 32 New York sellers.

Format Where it works Who sells it How it is counted Who regulates it Typical buy unit Where it loses
Times Square spectaculars The Alliance district, 40th to 53rd Street; launches, entertainment, moments built for social reach Fifteen outdoor sellers on the Times Square Alliance's screens page, led by OUTFRONT Media, Clear Channel Outdoor, Silvercast, Branded Cities and New Tradition Times Square Alliance camera counts, 200,000 to 250,000 pedestrians a day; vendors cite higher Department of Buildings; Zoning Resolution 81-732 requires the signs Share of a loop per flight; static units per four-week cycle, production extra Reach beyond the district; price opacity; static installation can cost more than media
Billboards and wallscapes Expressways in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx; bridge and tunnel approaches; walls in Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn Clear Channel Outdoor, OUTFRONT Media, Lamar, Branded Cities; Clear Channel under the MTA billboard concession (319 locations, 38 of them land-leased to other owners) Geopath impressions per face Department of Buildings permits and OAC register; Zoning Resolution 32-63, 32-662, 42-65 Four-week cycle; digital as an 8-second spot in a 64-second loop Scarce in Manhattan; no new advertising signs within 200 feet of an arterial highway
MTA subway and bus 472 stations; 1,281,883,362 subway rides and 442 million bus rides in 2025; commuters, systemwide or by station OUTFRONT Media only; resold through AdQuick, Blue Line Media and agencies MTA ridership; OUTFRONT cites Geopath MTA Advertising Policy, effective 25 June 2025, a non-public forum Digital Urban Panel 8 seconds in 64; Liveboard 5, 10 or 15 seconds in 180; cards and posters per four weeks No political or public-policy creative; alcohol only inside narrow carve-outs; fixed to stations
Taxi tops, digital and static Yellow and green cabs; 8,494 yellow taxis on the road on an average day in July 2026, per a TLC fleet and trip-record analysis Firefly (GPS-enabled digital and static tops), SOMO, Blue Line Media as a reseller, and other networks Seller delivery reports, such as GPS route data and proof-of-play photos; Geopath lists taxi panels among transit displays Taxi and Limousine Commission; exempted by name in Traffic Rules 4-12(j)(1) Per top per four weeks; digital by daypart and neighbourhood Cannot hold one intersection at 100% share of voice; small canvas
Street furniture Sidewalks citywide, over 3,300 bus shelters plus newsstands JCDecaux under the NYC DOT Coordinated Street Furniture Franchise The seller's audience estimate per panel Department of Transportation franchise, advertising "within clearly defined limits" Per panel per four weeks, block by block Eye-level poster scale; one panel holds one block
LinkNYC kiosks Sidewalk kiosks in all five boroughs; "over 3,750 digital screens" Intersection The seller's audience estimate; programmatic via DSPs Office of Technology and Innovation, Public Communications Structure Franchise with CityBridge, LLC Group of kiosks by neighbourhood and daypart Sidewalk kiosk scale; sold as a network, not a single site
Vehicle wraps and mobile billboards Fleets that already drive for a living Firefly (full 360-degree, partial 270-degree and door 180-degree wraps, with or without a digital top), Vector Media for double-decker bus wraps and custom vehicles, other wrap networks and fleet owners; AdQuick lists LED trucks in Midtown, which the Traffic Rules ban below does not exempt The seller's own estimate; ask for the method NYC Traffic Rules 4-12(j)(1) and 4-08(n)(3), Department of Transportation; on a taxi or for-hire vehicle, also the Taxi and Limousine Commission, which must authorize any exterior advertising, a wrap included (35 RCNY 58-32(c), 59A-29(e)(1)) Per vehicle per flight A vehicle operated, stood or parked "for the purpose of commercial advertising" is prohibited

Disclosure: the editor of this site is employed by Firefly, one of the sellers named in the table above; the link to Firefly is marked sponsored, and no Firefly price appears on this page.

The seller lists are deliberately short and deliberately not ranked. Where a format has one seller, it is because a franchise or concession makes it so, and that is the single most useful thing to know before you ask for a proposal.

Two street formats sit outside the table because no franchise, concession or permit list makes them a single buy. Posters pasted in runs on construction barricades and walls are sold as wild posting, and the city code that decides where a poster may go is set out in the NYC wild posting guide. Painted ads and vinyl wallscapes on building walls are, to the Zoning Resolution, signs like any billboard; who paints them and which walls can carry them is in the mural and wallscape guide.

Who Regulates Advertising in New York City?

Five bodies, and which one applies depends on the surface, not the advertiser. Their rules are public and they are where most New York surprises come from.

The MTA. Its Advertising Policy, effective 25 June 2025, states that "the MTA expressly intends that the advertising space on the Property be a non-public forum", bars advertising that "promotes or opposes a political party, a ballot referendum, any proposed or contemplated legislation or regulation, or the election of any candidate", and prohibits alcohol except inside the carve-outs in its section IV.D (MTA Advertising Policy, PDF, read 24 October 2026). The MTA's advertising page sends all subway, bus and commuter rail buyers to OUTFRONT Media and billboard buyers to Clear Channel Outdoor (MTA, Advertising and activations). OUTFRONT's concession, effective 1 November 2017 and extended to a 13-year base term, is set out in its 2025 annual report (OUTFRONT Media, Form 10-K).

The Department of Transportation. Two things. It holds the Coordinated Street Furniture Franchise, awarded to Cemusa in 2005 and now held by JCDecaux under a restated agreement, covering "over 3,300 bus shelters", up to 40 automatic public toilets and the city's newsstands, with the franchisee allowed "to sell advertising space on the structures within clearly defined limits" (NYC DOT, Coordinated Street Furniture). And it writes the Traffic Rules. Section 4-12(j)(1): "No person shall operate, stand, or park a vehicle or bicycle on any street or roadway for the purpose of commercial advertising." A business may put notices about its own business on a vehicle in normal use, "provided that no portion of any such notice shall be reflectorized, illuminated, or animated, and provided that no such notice shall be put upon the top of the vehicle". Section 4-08(n)(3) repeats the standing and parking ban and points back to the same definition (34 RCNY 4-08 and 34 RCNY 4-12, Rules of the City of New York, read 24 October 2026). The exemptions sit in the same subdivision: paragraph (j)(1) says "Advertisements may be put upon vehicles licensed by the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission in accordance with the Commission's rules", and paragraph (j)(2) lets buses under a DOT franchise and Sanitation vehicles carry commercial advertising. That is why the taxi top exists, and why a stand-alone advertising truck has no exemption to rely on, even when a marketplace lists one.

The Department of Buildings and the Zoning Resolution. An advertising sign "directs attention to goods or services at a location other than the premises where the sign is located" (NYC Buildings, Sign). It needs a permit, an operator registered as an Outdoor Advertising Company, and a zoning district that allows it: C6-5, C6-7 and C8 in commercial districts (Zoning Resolution 32-63), M1 to M3 in manufacturing districts (Section 42-62), and nowhere within 200 feet of an arterial highway or a park of half an acre or more if the sign is within view of it, apart from some through truck routes within half a mile of the city line in manufacturing districts (Zoning Resolution 32-662 and Section 42-65, last amended 6 June 2024). Times Square inverts the rule: Section 81-732 requires illuminated signs there.

The Taxi and Limousine Commission. Governs what may be carried on a licensed taxi or for-hire vehicle, the exemption the Traffic Rules refer to by name. Its rule 67-16 lets a medallion owner who pays the annual advertising permit fee install a rooftop advertising fixture the TLC has authorised, and its for-hire rules do not approve rooftop advertising on for-hire vehicles other than street-hail liveries (35 RCNY 59A-29(e)(2); the street-hail livery exception is 59B-29(e)(2)), so in New York a top rides on a cab, not on an Uber or Lyft car.

The Office of Technology and Innovation. Holds the Public Communications Structure Franchise with CityBridge, LLC, first approved by the Franchise and Concession Review Committee in 2014 and amended in 2015, 2018 and 2021, under which the LinkNYC kiosks stand on the city's right-of-way (NYC OTI, LinkNYC Franchises, read 24 October 2026). Intersection sells the screens, "over 3,750 digital screens, spanning 3,250 blocks of the city in all 5 boroughs" by its own count (Intersection, New York).

How Is Out-of-Home Advertising Counted in New York?

Four different ways, which is why two formats quoting the same CPM are not comparable until you know the denominator. Times Square is counted by camera: the Times Square Alliance publishes 200,000 to 250,000 pedestrians a day, and the vendor figures that run up to 360,000 are examined on the Times Square page. The subway is counted by turnstile: the MTA recorded 1,281,883,362 rides in 2025 and an average weekday of 4,001,735 (MTA, Subway and bus ridership for 2025), and rides are journeys, not people. Billboards are counted by Geopath, which treats circulation as a measure of traffic volume and impressions as "the total number of times people passing an OOH display are likely to notice the ad" (Geopath glossary, read 24 October 2026). Moving formats are counted by the seller: a digital taxi top is reported from GPS route data and proof-of-play photos, read against a traffic model.

The practical rule: a camera count is a body, a ride is a journey, a Geopath impression is a model of who noticed, and a seller's delivery report is only as good as its method. Ask every seller which of the four sits under its CPM, and for which year. The counting column in the table above gives the answer for each format.

How Much Does Advertising in New York City Cost?

The owners of most New York inventory publish no rates, so the figures below are the reseller and marketplace ranges that the deeper pages on this site examine line by line. They are here for orientation only.

The ranges below are market-level figures compiled from publicly published vendor and industry sources. They are not quotes, and they are not the rates of any single network. Always get a written quote before budgeting.

Format Published range Publisher and basis
Times Square spectacular $25,000 to $40,000 per four weeks for a 15-second share of a standard digital board; $50,000 for a 15-second spot on a standard non-prime screen; $150,000 to $400,000+ for a full board Plug Talk Media; PJX Media. The large screen owners print no rate. See the Times Square page
Billboards $2,000 to $5,000 static poster; $5,500 to $24,000 static bulletin; $7,000 to $24,000 digital bulletin; $20,000 to $350,000 wallscape, per four weeks Blue Line Media, New York City page, "est.", $5,000 minimum spend
Subway $35 to $75 per car card; $1,500 to $3,000 per station poster; $3,000 to $10,000 per digital screen, per four weeks; station domination $25,000 to $75,000 or more AdQuick New York rows; Blue Line Media. OUTFRONT publishes nothing
Taxi top $200 to $500 static; $400 to $600 digital, per display per four weeks Blue Line Media national taxi rate card, "estimated"
Bus shelter $1,500 to $4,500 per shelter per four weeks AdQuick New York City guide, "Typical 4-Week Rate (per unit)"; JCDecaux prints no rate on its New York pages
LinkNYC kiosk $25,000 to $150,000+ for the kiosk network, per four weeks AdQuick New York City guide; Intersection prints no rate on its New York page

Every row above was read from the publisher's live page on 24 October 2026 (Plug Talk Media, AdQuick subway advertising, AdQuick New York City guide, Blue Line Media New York subway, Blue Line Media New York billboards, Blue Line Media taxi). None states a method, and the Blue Line site carries a notice that some of its content may be AI-generated. Where a figure is national rather than New York, the table says so; the taxi-top row is national. Where the Times Square figure sits against a fleet of digital taxi tops scheduled through the same district is on the billboard-versus-taxi-tops comparison.

Do You Need an Agency to Buy OOH in New York?

No. Every owner in the table sells direct. The MTA's advertising page publishes a named OUTFRONT sales contact; Clear Channel, Lamar and OUTFRONT run New York sales offices; JCDecaux and Intersection take direct enquiries; Firefly and SOMO sell their taxi tops direct, and Firefly's are also bought programmatically through Place Exchange, Vistar Media, Hivestack and Broadsign, per its advertising solutions page. A planner with one format and one owner in mind can buy it without an intermediary, and the proposal will be the same document either way.

What an agency or a marketplace adds is the work between the owners: a plan that spans five regulators and four counting methods, negotiation across sellers who do not compete on the same surface, production management for units with different specifications, and measurement that can be read across formats. Marketplaces such as AdQuick aggregate the inventory and print planning ranges; specialist agencies such as Talon, which bought PJX Media in July 2026 (MediaPost, 7 July 2026), plan and buy across owners for clients. The agencies that do this work in New York, scored on written criteria, are in the NYC agency guide. Neither an agency nor a marketplace replaces the owner's quote. If the plan is one Liveboard flight, buy it direct. If it is a launch across the Bowtie, the subway entrances beneath it and the cabs passing through, the fee buys someone whose job is to make the four audience numbers reconcile.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does it cost to advertise in NYC?

It depends on the format, and the owners of most New York out-of-home inventory publish no rates. The published third-party ranges, per four weeks unless stated, run from $200 to $500 for a static taxi top (national) and $1,500 to $4,500 for a bus shelter, through $3,000 to $10,000 for a subway digital screen and $7,000 to $24,000 for a digital bulletin, to $20,000 to $350,000 for a wallscape and $150,000 or more for a full Times Square board. None is a quote.

How much is a 30 second ad in Times Square?

Plug Talk Media, an agency, puts a 30-second share of a mid-tier Times Square digital board at $50,000 to $80,000 per four weeks. Screens sell a share of every loop for a flight, not a single play. PJX Media puts a 15-second spot on a standard non-prime screen at $50,000 per four weeks. The full breakdown, with the pedestrian count under each CPM, is on this site's Times Square page.

What exactly is OOH advertising?

Out-of-home advertising is media seen outside the home: billboards, street furniture such as bus shelters and kiosks, transit such as subway, bus and taxi, and place-based screens. The Out of Home Advertising Association of America reports the four categories separately and puts 2025 United States OOH spend at $9.46 billion, up 3.6%. In New York the same four categories are sold by different companies under different regulators.

Can you advertise on a truck in New York City?

Not as a stand-alone advertising vehicle. New York City Traffic Rules section 4-12(j)(1) states that no person shall operate, stand or park a vehicle on any street for the purpose of commercial advertising, and section 4-08(n)(3) repeats the standing and parking ban. A business may carry notices about its own business on a working vehicle, but not on the roof, not illuminated and not animated. Vehicles licensed by the Taxi and Limousine Commission and franchised buses are exempt.

Who regulates advertising in New York City?

Five bodies, one per surface. The MTA writes the advertising policy for subways, buses and commuter rail and sells through OUTFRONT Media. The Taxi and Limousine Commission governs taxi and for-hire vehicle advertising. The Department of Buildings permits and registers billboards, within limits set by the Zoning Resolution. The Department of Transportation holds the street furniture franchise with JCDecaux and writes the traffic rules on advertising vehicles. The Office of Technology and Innovation holds the LinkNYC franchise with CityBridge.

Do you need an agency to advertise in New York?

No. OUTFRONT, Clear Channel Outdoor, Lamar, JCDecaux, Intersection and the taxi networks all sell direct, and the MTA's own advertising page publishes a named OUTFRONT contact. An agency or a marketplace adds cross-owner planning, negotiation, production management and measurement. For a single-format buy from one owner it is optional; for a plan that spans five regulators and four counting methods it earns its fee.

Is OOH advertising still relevant?

The trade body's figures say it is growing. OAAA reports 2025 United States out-of-home spend of $9.46 billion, up 3.6% on 2024, with transit up 9.8% and street furniture up 5.6%. In the New York DMA, OAAA's MediaRadar-based table puts 2025 local out-of-home spend at $858,054,320, the largest of any market and 25.8% of all local ad spend in the DMA, with OAAA's own note that MediaRadar under-reports OOH by roughly 30%.

The Bottom Line

Advertising in New York City is not one decision but seven, each with its own seller, its own regulator and its own way of counting a person. Use the table to find which format fits the campaign, the regulator section to know what will be refused before it is designed, and the counting section to make the CPMs comparable before anything is compared. Then go to the deeper page for the format, where every figure carries its source and date, and get the quote from the owner, with the unit on it.

Brief received.

It is in the queue and will be read by a person. Expect a reply with questions rather than a quote.

Describe the New York campaign

Market, timing and the format decision still open. A person reads every brief and replies with questions, not a rate card.

Four lines make a brief

  1. Where. The boroughs or corridors, the flight and the band; the format can stay open.
  2. When. The day the creative has to be live, and the day it comes down.
  3. How much. A band is enough; nobody here needs the final number.
  4. Judged on. Reach, footfall, search lift or sales: the number your boss will ask for.

The reply names the units that fit and the published ranges behind them, with the source for each. This desk prints no rates of its own.

Send the brief

Sources

  1. OAAA, 2025 OOH Ad Spend Performance, Facts and Figures (2025 US OOH spend $9.46 billion, +3.6%; category growth; New York DMA $858,054,320 local OOH spend, rank 1 by spend, 25.8% of local ad spend; MediaRadar under-reporting note) · oaaa.org (PDF) · read 24 October 2026
  2. MTA Advertising Policy (effective 25 June 2025; non-public forum; prohibited categories; alcohol carve-outs) · mta.info/document/65096 (PDF) · read 24 October 2026
  3. MTA, Advertising and activations (OUTFRONT for transit, Clear Channel Outdoor for billboards) · mta.info · read 24 October 2026
  4. MTA, Subway and bus ridership for 2025 (1,281,883,362 rides; 4,001,735 weekday) · mta.info · read 24 October 2026
  5. OUTFRONT Media Inc., Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025 (MTA Agreement effective 1 November 2017, 13-year Amended Term, five-year option) · sec.gov · read 24 October 2026
  6. Rules of the City of New York, Title 34, Section 4-08 Parking, Stopping, Standing (subdivision (n)(3), parking for commercial advertising prohibited) · codelibrary.amlegal.com · read 24 October 2026
  7. Rules of the City of New York, Title 34, Section 4-12 Miscellaneous (subdivision (j): (j)(1) commercial advertising vehicles and the TLC exemption; (j)(2) franchised bus and Sanitation exemptions) · codelibrary.amlegal.com · read 24 October 2026
  8. NYC DOT, Coordinated Street Furniture (Cemusa award, JCDecaux, over 3,300 bus shelters, up to 40 automatic public toilets, advertising rights) · nyc.gov/dot · read 24 October 2026
  9. NYC Buildings, Sign (advertising sign definition; permits; Outdoor Advertising Registration Program) · nyc.gov/buildings · read 24 October 2026
  10. New York City Zoning Resolution, Sections 32-63, 32-662 and 42-65 (districts permitting advertising signs; 200-foot arterial and park rule; last amended 6 June 2024) · zr.planning.nyc.gov · read 24 October 2026
  11. NYC Office of Technology and Innovation, LinkNYC Franchises (Public Communications Structure Franchise with CityBridge, LLC; 2014 approval and amendments) · nyc.gov/oti · read 24 October 2026
  12. Intersection, New York (LinkNYC screen count; PATH and Penn Station inventory) · intersection.com · read 24 October 2026
  13. OUTFRONT Media, New York City Transit & Subway Advertising Guide, Meet the MTA, Part 1 (472 stations) · outfront.com · read 24 October 2026
  14. Times Square Alliance, Market Research & Data (200,000 to 250,000 pedestrians a day) · timessquarenyc.org · read 24 October 2026
  15. Geopath, Glossary (circulation and impressions definitions) · geopath.org/glossary · read 24 October 2026
  16. AdQuick, How Much Does a Billboard Cost? 2026 Prices & CPM and Subway Advertising (Times Square and New York ranges) · adquick.com/billboard-cost, adquick.com/subway-advertising · read 24 October 2026
  17. Plug Talk Media, Times Square Billboard Cost & Rental (15-second, 30-second and full-board ranges) · plugtalk.media · read 24 October 2026
  18. AdQuick, New York City Outdoor Advertising Guide (published 6 April 2026; bus shelter, LinkNYC network and mobile billboard rows) · adquick.com · read 24 October 2026
  19. NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission, 35 RCNY Chapters 59 and 67 (59A-29(e)(2) rooftop advertising; 67-16 authorized rooftop advertising fixture) · nyc.gov, PDF, nyc.gov, PDF · read 24 October 2026
  20. TLC fleet and trip-record analysis (8,494 yellow taxis on the road per day, TLC monthly indicators, July 2026), nytaxiadvertising.net · linked in the table · read 24 October 2026
  21. MTA Board, staff summary, license agreement with Clear Channel Outdoor for billboard advertising on MTA agency properties (25 September 2024; 319 locations) · mta.info/document/152076 · read 24 October 2026
  22. PJX Media, Cost of Billboard Advertising in Times Square ($50,000 per four weeks, 15-second spot) · pjxmedia.com · read 24 October 2026
  23. Blue Line Media, New York City Billboard Advertising; Taxi Advertising; Transit Advertising (rate tables, $5,000 minimum, AI-generated content notice) · bluelinemedia.com · read 24 October 2026

Corrected 24 October 2026. New York's 25.8% is its share of local ad spend, not the highest share of any market; it ranks first by dollars. Plug Talk Media's published 30-second range replaced the line that no publisher prints one; Blue Line Media's wallscape range is $20,000 to $350,000; NY Taxi Ads, which the directory could not verify, is no longer named as a seller; the 1,281,883,362 rides are subway rides only; and the traffic-rule exemptions are cited to 4-12(j)(1) and (j)(2).

Corrected 25 October 2026. The 8-in-64 loop belongs to OUTFRONT's Digital Urban Panel, not the static panel; the arterial-highway rule bars new advertising signs, not all signs; and the wraps row now names the TLC's authorization rule for taxis and for-hire vehicles.