Floating Billboards Banned From New York Waters

NEW YORK — The floating billboard business may be a sinking ship. A new law bans digital signs like those that have lit up New York City's waterfront from sailing through Empire State waterways.

The measure Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed Tuesday bars boats from carrying digital billboards or any other sign with "flashing, intermittent or moving lights" in the state's navigable waters, including the Hudson and East rivers.

The law is another blow to Ballyhoo Media, the upstart company that has sailed bright billboards akin to Times Square's on both sides of Manhattan. The firm could face penalties under the law of $1,500 for the first offense and $5,000 for each subsequent one.

"These floating billboards are a dangerous distraction to drivers, boaters, and pedestrians, not to mention an eyesore," state Sen. Brad Hoylman, a Manhattan Democrat who sponsored the bill, said in a statement. "New Yorkers deserve to have a respite on our waterfront from the barrage of modern life."

But the law may not make the billboards disappear entirely. It does not ban them from the New Jersey side of the Hudson, and Ballyhoo may find a way to keep its business afloat regardless.

Ballyhoo CEO Adam Shapiro said the company is "undeterred" in the face of the new law and plans to continue providing its "innovative" advertising platform.

"Our legal team believes these changes to the Navigation law do not prohibit us from operating," Shapiro said in a statement. "Instead they offer clarity on what we can and cannot display with our platform."

Miami-based Ballyhoo is also facing a lawsuit from New York City over its splashy waterborne signage, which has featured ads for Heineken beer, the TV show "The Walking Dead" and a movie featuring Dr. Seuss's The Grinch.

The city has called the billboards a "public nuisance" that violates decades-old rules barring advertising on vessels traveling in waterways that are adjacent to residential, commercial or manufacturing areas and in view of major highways such as the FDR Drive.

The federal lawsuit asks the court to bar the company from operating on the city's waterways and impose fines of $25,000 for each day that it broke zoning rules. Ballyhoo has said it would work with the city to resolve the case.