Clear Channel adds 250 billboards from the MTA transportation network to its portfolio, stretching its wings a little further across the largest OoH market in the U.S.
Clear Channel has secured a 15-year contract with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) that includes the marketing, management, and operation of 250 roadside billboards. The MTA runs bus and rail services across New York City’s five boroughs and parts of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, making it the largest public transportation network in North America.
The new contract enables Clear Channel to strengthen its presence in and around New York City. Since 2020, the company has managed OoH advertising at New York’s three major airports—John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia, and Newark—and also handles several digital billboards in Times Square.
DooH screens run by Outfront
The MTA owns many more out-of-home spaces than just the roadside billboards on metro land now managed by Clear Channel. Most of the thousands of billboards and displays on buses, trains, and in stations are marketed by U.S. outdoor advertiser Outfront.
For the next 15 years, however, the analog roadside share will remain with competitor Clear Channel, for whom the contract is an important success: “This expansion to Clear Channel Outdoor’s NY portfolio gives us a new foothold as one of the OoH leaders in the number one media market in the world and gives our sales team an even more attractive story to tell from a national standpoint” says Bob McCuin, Chief Revenue Officer at Clear Channel Outdoor.
Clear Channel’s success in New York aligns with its investors’ strategy to focus more on its North American business and sell off its international branches individually. This has already been accomplished in Italy, France, and Switzerland. However, a recent sale in Spain to JC Decaux failed due to conditions set by antitrust authorities.
