Outdoor advertising in Italy

Milan and Rome are the most expensive markets in the country, the southern cities noticeably cheaper, and inside a city the gap between a ring road and a central street can be several times over. The price for a month is shown on the surface card where the owner has published it; on top of it the quote carries the comune levy, charged on the surface of the structure. Send the addresses and the dates and we will come back with a quote.

Outdoor structures are available in 18 cities, and the catalogue spans 18. The structures stand thickest here: Andria, Bari, Foggia. Inside a built-up area the permit is issued by the comune, each with its own regulation, so confirmation times differ between neighbouring cities and a national schedule is assembled from several local ones.

There are 2 formats, and the main one is Billboards. Six-by-three posters line the city streets, panels work on pedestrians in shelters, screens cluster in shopping centres and stations. Protected historic quarters carry no large structures at all.

The permit is issued by the road owner, and inside a built-up area by the comune; where the road is state, regional or provincial, the comune first takes a technical clearance from its owner. Which types of installation are allowed and how many of each may exist is fixed in the comune regulation, while a general plan of advertising installations is mandatory only for comuni above 20,000 residents — in a smaller town the addresses simply follow the regulation.

No. Advertising along international itineraries, motorways and main extra-urban roads, or in view of them and of their accesses, is prohibited by art. 23 of the Highway Code — there is no exception for boards, only service signs and the roadside businesses' own fascia signs. We build the out-of-town part of a plan on ordinary roads beyond built-up areas, where media must stand at least 100 metres apart, and we say up front that free positions there are few.

You can, but the set is different. On the protected buildings themselves and in their areas advertising is forbidden, and on the streets beside them the permit is issued only with the prior assent of the superintendency, as art. 49 of the Code of Cultural Heritage requires. Such quarters hold no large structures; shelter panels, street furniture and shopfront formats do work. There are few such sites and they go before the rest, so the centre of Milan, Rome or Florence is planned first.

Besides the site price the quote carries the canone unico patrimoniale, the single comune levy that since 2021 has replaced the advertising tax, the fee on public posting and the charge for occupying public space (Law No. 160 of 27 December 2019). It is worked out on the whole surface of the structure in square metres, whatever the number of creatives, and the comune sets the base rate itself — which is why we show the levy as its own line. Print and installation are handled by the site owner and appear separately as well.