Are Manchester Billboards Really 45% Cheaper Than London? Real Prices (2026)
One trade piece says Manchester billboards cost 45% less than London. We compared real day rates on 160 screens. For small advertisers, the gap mostly disappears.
An opinion piece in Prolific North this year said Northern billboards cost 40 to 45% less than London. Its example: a Manchester 48-sheet for roughly £550 to £750 for two weeks, where London starts at nearly £1,000.
That is probably fair for the market it describes: big paper and digital formats, sold in two-week cycles, often through an agency. It isn't the whole picture. So we looked at the day rates on our own screens in both cities.
What we compared
We took every screen listed on FameCake in Manchester (27), Stockport (11), Salford (4) and London (118). These are self-service digital screens, sold by the day, with the price shown before you pay. All prices include VAT.
The numbers
| Type of screen | Manchester | London |
|---|---|---|
| Takeaway and convenience store screens | £10 | £10 |
| Shell petrol station, every screen on the site | not listed | £30 |
| Sports centres and shopping parades | £15 | £15 |
| Roadside screens | £20, extra-large £30 | £20, or £30 for both sides of a two-sided site |
| Landmark screen | £60 (Axis Tower) | not listed |
For the same size of screen, the day rate is the same in both cities. Manchester roadside reaches £30 because it has extra-large roadside screens, which we don't have in London yet. The London median comes out lower only because most of our London screens are takeaway and petrol station screens, listed at £10 each.
Some roadside sites have two sides, and we sell them as one unit. When people could book a single side, they were never sure which side to look for. So you get both sides, and the second one costs half price. Lea Bridge Road in Leyton and Plough Lane in Wimbledon work this way: £30 a day for both sides.
The best value in London is a Shell petrol station. At Shell Park Royal you get all 12 screens at the station for £30 a day, which works out at £2.50 a screen. Shooters Hill and Mill Hill give you 8 screens for the same £30.
Why the gap disappears
The London premium in the traditional market pays for two things:
- Central London sites. Piccadilly, the Westfields and the big roads into the City are some of the most valuable advertising spots in Europe. They price like it.
- Demand from national brands. When every big advertiser wants London, the price of the best sites goes up.
Self-service screens sit outside both of those. They are on the high street, the forecourt and the ring road, priced by the day for someone with a local business and a small budget. A roadside screen in Walthamstow and a roadside screen in Openshaw do the same job, for a similar audience, at the same price.
To be clear about what we don't have: our London screens are mostly in outer London, not Piccadilly. If you need central London's landmark sites, you are in the traditional market, and the premium is real.
What people actually spend
Over the last three months, the typical ad on our Greater Manchester screens cost £30. In London it was £22. Manchester buyers are also more likely to be businesses: about 84% of Greater Manchester ads came from businesses, against about half in London, where birthday messages are more common.
Where the Manchester screens are
| Location | Price per day |
|---|---|
| Axis Tower, city centre | £60 |
| Ashton Old Road, inbound and outbound | £30 |
| Queens Road, Harpurhey | £30 |
| Wilmslow Road, Rusholme | £20 |
| Liverpool Road and Bentcliffe Way, Eccles (Salford) | £20 |
| Manchester Road, Audenshaw | £20 |
| Heaton Park, Prestwich | £20 |
| Lime Square, Openshaw (four screens) | £15 |
| Cheetham Hill (four screens) | £15 |
| Powerleague Manchester Central, Ardwick | £15 |
| Takeaways and convenience stores across the city | £10 |
Stockport has 11 more screens including Merseyway and Bramhall, and Salford has screens on Trinity Way and the Broadway roundabout. See every Manchester billboard with photos and prices.
So which is cheaper?
If you are buying a two-week run on a big format through an agency, Manchester is cheaper, and the 40 to 45% figure is a reasonable guide.
If you are a local business that wants one screen near your customers for a week or two, the city barely matters. A roadside screen costs about £20 a day in either city. Pick the screen your customers drive past, not the city with the better headline price.
For prices across the rest of the country, see the UK billboard advertising cost guide.
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