If you’ve ever wondered how much a 30-second commercial costs, the short answer is anywhere between $5 for a small local TV spot and $7 million for a nationwide Super Bowl ad. That’s a remarkable range, because TV advertising costs vary depending on factors like time, platform, audience, length, and location. But if you want to run a TV ad for your business, expect to pay between $500 for a local ad and $200,000 for a national ad.
Keep reading for a breakdown of the costs for each platform, the factors affecting them, and more tips.
General TV Advertising Costs
As mentioned, one of the main factors determining the cost for a commercial on TV is where you place it. Currently, there are four main forms of television where you can advertise: national broadcast TV, local TV, cable TV, and streaming TV. Because each of these has its own ecosystem and market, how much is a commercial varies for each. However, here’s a quick roundup:
How much does a TV commercial cost?
- Broadcast TV: Averages at $30.5 CPM, but can reach millions for big TV events
- Cable TV: Averages at $16 CPM
- Local TV: Averages at $20 CPM, or between $5 and $35 CPM
- Streaming TV: Averages at $50 CPM, Or between $25 and $75 CPM
Find out more about each below:
Broadcast TV Costs
Broadcast TV is the most established format of television and the most competitive. This is because it has the widest reach and is your best bet for reaching a nationwide brand presence. A good example are the famed Super Bowl ads, which can reach over a hundred million viewers (and also cost a good amount).
For broadcast TV, you can expect to pay within $30.5 CPM (cost per mille or per thousand viewers) for a 30-second commercial in a primetime spot. However, this can vary greatly depending on your timeslot. For example, advertising on popular TV events like the Super Bowl or award shows can quickly cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
For context, here are some recent TV advertising costs for notable TV events:
- At the 2023 Super Bowl, it cost a record $7 million to air a 30-second TV ad.
- Meanwhile, airing a 30-second ad during NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” costs around $882,000 in 2024.
- During the 2024 Academy Awards, a 30-second ad spot cost $2.2 million.
How frequently you want your ad to appear will also impact your total ad costs. However, experts also advise prioritizing your ad’s reach over its frequency. Arthur Worsley, the founder of The Art of Living and a former McKinsey associate notes that the impact on conversion diminishes each time an individual views the same TV ad:
“Research has shown that reaching one additional new person with a TV ad is often far more impactful on conversions than reaching the same person more than once.”
Cable TV Costs
Knowing how much does a 30-second commercial cost on cable TV depends on the station where you want to place it. However, you can expect it to cost around $16 CPM. Below are some sample prices for some of the most popular cable TV channels from the broadcast media agency DX Media Direct:
Cable Channel | CPM |
|---|---|
Animal Planet | $25–$100 |
CNBC | $20–$90 |
CNN | $50–$250 |
Discovery | $45–$125 |
ESPN | $45–$250 |
Food Network | $35–$150 |
Fox News | $50–$400 |
History | $20–$80 |
MTV | $15–$65 |
National Geographic | $35–$150 |
Local TV Advertising Costs
If you own a small business, advertising on local TV is likely your most viable option. It’s currently the most affordable form of TV advertising, and it’s an effective way to advertise your small business to your community. Plus, there’s far less competition than with national television.
For local TV ads, expect to pay an average of $20 CPM, or between $5 and $35 CPM. However, this also varies for each region. To know how much does a local TV commercial cost in your specific area, contact your local TV station and inquire about their prices. They should be able to give a list of their local TV advertising rates for different time slots.
Streaming TV Advertising Costs
Streaming TV (sometimes called OTT or over-the-top TV) is the youngest entry into television advertising—but it’s also an up-and-coming one. Streaming players like Netflix and Hulu are quickly growing in prominence, and a few are starting to test ad-supported pricing tiers. Advertising on these streaming services can grant you guaranteed views from a targeted and engaged audience.
According to industry insiders, the cost of a TV advertisement on a streaming service is between $25 and $75 CPM, or an average of $50 CPM. More well-known services sit on the higher end, while smaller ones are on the lower end.
TV Ad Production Costs
TV advertising costs aren’t composed solely of your ad’s placement on your broadcast platform. Another expense you’ll need to consider are your ad’s production costs, or the cost to produce your ad, from writing the script to filming and editing the video.
You can produce a TV commercial in multiple ways, depending on your team’s creative capabilities and advertising budget. Producing your own TV ad in-house might cost less than $3,000 with proper budgeting. This includes costs for renting production space and equipment such as cameras, microphones, and lighting, as well as hiring talent like actors or voiceover artists.
On the other hand, outsourcing to an ad agency for a professionally produced TV commercial will cost closer to $10,000 or $50,000 and up. This cost can increase exponentially if, for instance, a celebrity is hired to appear in the ad or if your video requires complex special effects requiring additional talent. Other factors that can affect it are rent for studio equipment or studio space.
- In-house TV ad productions can cost as little as $3,000
- Outsourced TV ad productions can cost between $10,000 and $50,000
Keep in mind that the length and complexity of your commercial will also influence your production costs. A simple, 10-second commercial will naturally cost less to create than a minute-long commercial with a large cast. Find out more about how to get started in our guide on how to get a commercial on TV. Plus, check out our list of the best TV commercials for inspiration.
Pro tip: If you need an extra hand for voiceovers, videographers, or even actors for your ad, Fiverr is a good place to start. For as low as $25, you can hire a freelance professional to help create your ad.
Factors Affecting TV Advertising Costs
Television advertising is priced on a CPM basis, which is the cost for your ad to be seen by 1,000 people. CPM is determined by factors such as where your ad is broadcasted, how beneficial each audience set is to advertisers, and how many advertisers are willing to pay for limited ad slots, among other factors.
For example, a TV show with a predominantly female audience will be more valuable to a company that sells products targeted at women. Even more, if there are multiple female-targeted shows, those with more viewers will also cost more, and so on.
Here are the biggest factors affecting how much a commercial costs:
- Network and TV show: Popular shows and TV networks will charge more for advertising slots. For example, you can expect to pay over $800,000 to air your commercial during NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” one of their most-watched programs.
- Time of year: Nationwide events that affect many people also influence TV advertising costs. Some examples are election campaigns, award shows, or the Super Bowl, which are big events that can drive up costs.
- Timeslot: Primetime commercial ad spots are in the evening between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m., which is when most people are watching TV and, therefore, when ad prices are highest.
- Airtime: The length of your commercial impacts both production and broadcasting expenses. Airtime and production for a short, 10-second ad will cost much less than a 60-second time slot.
- Location: Airing your commercials in large, densely populated urban areas allows you to reach more viewers with one commercial, so the cost of advertising in New York City is far greater than the cost of TV advertising in a rural region.
- Demand and availability: There are typically two or three commercial breaks in a half-hour show, each lasting two minutes. This equates to a total of 12 30-second commercials. The fewer available ad spots and the greater the demand (and competition), the higher the price.
Keeping all of these factors in mind will help you better understand how much it costs to air commercials on television and how to get the most from your TV advertising dollars.
TV Advertising Alternatives
Beyond television, it’s good to know other alternatives to get your message out to your audiences. Below are some of the best alternatives to TV advertisements and their median CPM,
Platform | Median CPM |
|---|---|
Radio | $14.5 |
Billboards (OOH) | $5.5 |
Print | $31.5 |
Digital Display Ads | $2.40 |
Digital Video Ads | $24 |
Source: Solomon Partners | |
In general, while TV advertising costs a higher amount upfront, its far-reaching range means that its CPM stays relatively affordable. However, CPM only tracks views, which doesn’t necessarily equate to higher engagement or more sales.
Pros & Cons of TV Advertising
When weighing the cost-benefit of TV advertising, start with the pros and cons. While TV gives your brand a sense of prestige and credibility, it’s also much pricier than other advertising options like digital ads. Also, consider if TV is the right strategy for your specific objectives. Here are some of the biggest pros and cons of TV advertising:
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| It can reach a wide and captive audience. | It has less precise audience targeting. |
| You can advertise regionally or nationwide. | Views don't always translate to increased revenue. |
| It is an engaging way to tell a story with visuals and sound. | There are no possibilities for audience interaction. |
| It has no competition for screen space, unlike with social media advertising. | It can be difficult to track and measure performance. |
| It increases your credibility and professionalism. | It can be more expensive than other ad types. |
5 Expert Tips for Maximizing TV Ad Spend
The cost of television advertising is considerable, especially if you’re a small business on a budget. To help you decide if this is the right course for you, we reached out to media and advertising experts and asked for tips you can use to avoid wasted ad spend and improve your return on investment. Here’s what they had to say:
Colin Jeffries, Vice President of Marketing and Communications at BrightView Health and host of the Rethink Marketing Podcast, advises that knowing your goal, audience, and times to avoid is key.
- Define your measure of success: If I want to drive branded search volume to my website, hitting 15%–20% market penetration five times per week in a metro of 250,000–1,000,000 people will accomplish that. In contrast, spending to hit 10% market penetration with a frequency of three times per week will waste money.
- Know your audience: The fewer people that see an ad, the cheaper that airtime is. A spot that airs during an NFL post-kickoff break will get a lot more reach—but also cost a lot more—than a spot that airs at 4 a.m. during an old TV show rerun. The key here is to know your target audience. If they are awake watching reruns at 4 a.m., let’s not waste the money on NFL games.
- Steer clear of artificially inflated seasons: To get the cheapest spots, avoid times when the market is falsely inflated. Hotly contested political races mean slots are more expensive for everyone, so it’s best to avoid those times altogether.
The founder and CEO of BankingGeek, Max Benz, says to lean into data and automation:
- Use data to control costs: When it comes to controlling costs, use data-driven optimization. This means leveraging insights from analytics and using that data to adjust bids, target audiences, and optimize creative messaging.
- Get matched to your audience automatically: Programmatic buying increases your campaign’s efficiency by matching relevant ad inventory with your targeting criteria. This can reduce costs and help you reach more members of your target audience.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Broadcast TV commercials generally cost $47.14 CPM, or per thousand viewers of your 30-second ad. However, this varies significantly depending on the timeslot, audience, and complexity of your ad. Meanwhile, cable TV commercials cost an average of $23.30 CPM, and local TV ads an average of $20 CPM. Streaming TV ads cost slightly higher at $50 CPM on average.
To air a local TV commercial, expect to pay an average of $20 CPM, or anywhere from $5 to $35 CPM, depending on timeslot, location, and audience size. For instance, a commercial aired at midnight on a small local TV station will be on the lower end, while one aired at primetime in a larger city will be on the higher end. Prices also vary per region, so for accurate rates, contact your local TV station.
The cost to air a commercial on broadcast TV averages $47.14 CPM, but can be much higher for popular shows or primetime timeslots. To reach a large national audience, you can expect to pay thousands of dollars. However, before you air a commercial, you’ll first need to produce it, which can cost between $3,000 and upwards of $50,000 depending on your commercial’s length and complexity and if you outsource or produce it in-house.
Bottom Line
TV advertising costs are one of the most variable in all of marketing. This is because of the many dynamic factors affecting it, from time slots to audience size to location. But the good news is that there are many options depending on what you need most, including broadcast, cable, local, and even streaming TV. And while it can be costly, TV has long been effective for building mass awareness and credibility for your brand and can be worth the investment.
