The unveiling of Des Moines’ first  digital billboard last month has  people talking,and they’re noticing  more than just the crisp images that  rotate onto the large screen every eight  seconds.

Located at the northeast corner of  Grand Avenue and 63rd Street, the  14- by-48-foot sign resembling a large  computer monitor is an example of a  type of technology sweeping the nation  – and raising questions about the hazards  it might pose to drivers.

“You have the potential to create  much more dynamic content, but the  concern is issues of liability,” said Anthony  Townsend, an associate professor of  management information systems at  Iowa State University.”If you get images  up there that are so hip and cool, or anything  provocative, there’s the potential  to be a distraction.”

Every eight seconds, the billboard  changes to display another advertisement.  At full capacity,the sign will feature  eight advertisers, whose messages each  run 1,250 times a day. Of course, the goal  of any advertisement is to grab people’s  attention, an increasingly complicated  feat as many Americans use digital video  recorders and subscribe to satellite radio  services to avoid commercials.

“People are changing the way they  interact with media,” Townsend said.  “But billboards can still have a lot of  play in the right market.”

Clear Channel Outdoor’s Des Moines  division owns the digital billboard and  is pleased with the attention the new  sign is getting.

“The reason advertising works is  because it’s impactful,” said Tim Jameson,  president of the division. “If you  see people parked at the stoplight  watching it, you see their eyes waiting  for it to change.”

Jameson said he has heard positive  things about the sign, which is currently  displaying messages from the Greater  Des Moines Partnership’s new marketing  campaign. He said his company has  a filter in place to approve each advertisement  before it goes live and will not  allow provocative images to run.

Though the digital billboard may be  turning heads, Jameson said such signs  are still not as distracting to drivers as  the things going on inside their automobiles,  such as conversations on cellular  phones.

Although the billboard industry  claims that the signs are not dangerous,  other people think it’s too early to  know. The New York Times recently  reported that a study commissioned by  the Federal Highway Administration  recommends further research into  whether the signs present risks to drivers.  The federal government has also  allotted money for a future study of  digital signs.

“The jury is still out,” said Lance  Stumbo, an advertising management  agent for the Iowa Department of  Transportation.

Although digital billboards are new  to Des Moines, they’ve been up in  other U.S. cities for about five years  and in European markets for about a  decade, according to Jameson. Des  Moines is not the first Iowa city to  have this type of billboard. Another  outdoor media company, Lamar Advertising  Co., has similar signs in Cedar  Rapids,Waterloo and Dubuque.

Critics of digital billboards worry  that the new signs are too effective at  getting attention. In recent weeks, a few  Minnesota cities have put a moratorium  on new digital signs or cut power to  them. Minnetonka cut off power to two  signs. The Clear Channel Outdoor division  there went to court in December  to fight the city’s refusal to power the  billboards. A judge ruled Jan. 23 that the  city was within its rights. Also last  month, the cities of Eagan and St. Paul  approved moratoriums on new signs  pending a six-month traffic safety study,  MediaBuyerPlanner.com reported.

So far, the city of Des Moines does  not consider the new sign to be a safety  hazard. Larry Hulse, the city’s community  development director, said he has  received only one complaint so far  about the sign being a distraction. Hulse  said the city plans to continue its  research on the technology and rewrite  its sign code to include guidelines on  digital billboards.

“We don’t see any ‘red flags’ to suggest  that these signs shouldn’t be  allowed,” Hulse said. “They don’t seem  to be much different than the normal  billboard because the messages aren’t  animated or overly bright.”

Clear Channel has donated the  advertising space until now to the Partnership,  but Jameson said paid advertisements  will begin to run later this  month. He would not comment on  who had bought advertising space on  the billboard, but said the buyers are  local companies. Six of the spots will  be sold on an annual basis, and the  other two will have options for shorter  time spans.

Jameson said the cost to advertise on  the digital boards is “not even double”  the cost rates for a standard billboard  because each sign generates money  from up to eight advertisers at a time.  Being able to share the cost among several  clients helps Clear Channel offset  the heavy price tag to put up the digital  sign, which Jameson says cost $500,000  each. A few years ago, the signs cost $1  million each.

“It will take us a period of years to  get the money back, but in the long run,  it’s an investment that we believe will  constitute rewards,” Jameson said.

The Outdoor Advertising Association  of America estimates that revenues from  digital billboards are three to five times  higher than from traditional billboards.  Jameson said one of the biggest selling  points of the digital faces over the vinyl  sheets more commonly used to cover  billboards is that clients can store hundreds  of different advertisements on the  billboard and run them at different  times during the day.

Another advantage to digital billboards  is fast production time for ads.  Jameson said ads are taken from digital  files on a computer and added to a  client’s rotation “with a click of a button.”  There is no extra charge for adding  or changing content. He said this is an  attractive option to customers who  have a need to update their message  frequently, such as banks, automobile  dealers and restaurants.

“The customer is demanding more  flexibility, control and effectiveness,”  Jameson said.”With this, you could have  an ad during the morning drive time  talking about your breakfast specials,  and change that to reflect lunch and  dinner specials later in the day.”

Kelli Conger, media director for  Flynn Wright, said her agency sees great  benefits to the technology, but also  some challenges. She likes that the color  and clarity of the image is “more impactful”  than vinyl, there is quick turnaround  on production and no production  costs, and that the new technology  makes it “eye catching.”

But she worries that someone could  lose “ownership of the space” by sharing  the billboard with other advertisers,  in particular, with competing companies.  She also thinks the cost is still out  of range for many, and that there are limitations  to advertisements because the  digital screen isn’t designed to accommodate  extensions that are sometimes  added to standard boards.

“It’s exciting technology, but we  haven’t recommended the digital board  yet for our clients,” Conger said.”We are  still weighing the pros and cons.”

Jameson is prepared to be patient  while agencies and other advertisers  learn more about the digital signs. As  interest grows in the technology, he  expects to add more signs, which could  be networked to show the same messages  at the same time.

“Any good business knows that they  have to change with the times,”Jameson  said. “If we don’t evolve and stay with  only the static billboards, the market is  going to pass us by.”