Television advertising costs can range anywhere from $5 CPM for a local TV ad to up to $45 CPM for a broadcast TV ad. Television ad prices are measured in CPM (cost per mille), aka the cost per thousand impressions of your ad. The more people your ad will likely reach, the higher your CPM, and vice versa.
Television advertising prices range dramatically because they depend heavily on factors like the TV format you’re advertising on (broadcast, local, cable, or streaming), the time slot, and the network. You’ll also need to factor in your ad production costs, which will differ depending on your ad concept and treatment.
Getting started with TV advertising as a small business can be intimidating. If you’re new to TV ads, Vibe is an ad platform that lets you set up ads on streaming TV apps like AMC and Hulu straight from your computer.You have complete control over your daily or weekly ad budget and an online platform to monitor your campaign. It’s a good place for small businesses to start with TV advertising.
Estimated television advertising cost calculator
TV advertising costs can be estimated by dividing the number of expected impressions your ad will reach by 1,000, then multiplying that number by the ad’s CPM.
For example, if a TV ad’s CPM is $15 and it’s expected to reach 200,000 impressions, your total cost will be $3,000. You can get information on the number of impressions your ad will likely reach from your TV network or ad platform.
How much does it cost to advertise on TV? Average costs per format
Broadcast television is the most established, competitive, and dynamic television format. It’s probably the first format you’ll think of when you think of TV commercials, and it’s responsible for some of the most iconic TV commercials.
For example, the 2025 Super Bowl season’s ads cost an average of $8 million for a 30-second spot. Meanwhile, the cost for an ad spot of the same length during the 2024 Academy Awards was an estimated $2.2 million.
Those also indicate how broad and dynamic broadcast television advertising costs can be, but that’s because they also have the widest reach. Generally, expect to pay between $16 and $45 CPM to air an ad on broadcast television, depending on your desired time slot and the length of your ad.
Cable TV provides a more direct line to audiences of specific interests. For example, if you own a pet supply store, you can place your ad on Animal Planet to reach viewers interested in pets and animals. For cable TV ads, expect to pay between $10 and $22 CPM, depending on your time slot, audience reach, and ad provider.
Check out some sample cable TV advertising rates from DXMediaDirect:
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 ads put your brand in front of people in your local area and are a great option if you have a physical store or location-specific services, like home cleaning or legal and real estate services. Local television advertising costs vary per region, but you can generally expect them to be between $5 and $30 CPM.
For a more accurate estimate, ask your local TV network directly — they can also give you costs for different time slots and offer recommendations to get the most out of your ad spend.
Streaming or connected TV (CTV) is the youngest and fastest-growing television format, ushering in the new streaming era through networks like Netflix and Hulu. Like cable TV ads, streaming ads place your commercial in front of audiences of specific interests, like sports, tourism, and gaming (to name a few).
But unlike cable TV, you get a lot more control over the streaming apps where your ad will appear and your daily budget — in a sense, combining the reach of cable TV with the convenience of digital ads.
For streaming TV ads, expect to pay between $15 and $35 CPM, depending on the streaming platform and time slots.
Factors affecting television advertising costs
Answering “how much does a 1-minute TV commercial cost?” isn’t straightforward because television advertising costs vary depending on your ad’s time slot, target audience, campaign length, and seasonality. That’s also why TV ad costs are measured in CPM, or cost per thousand impressions, and not in plain dollars.
For example, if you want to advertise your sports drink, you’ll likely want to target viewers of sports channels like ESPN or NBC Sports. Furthermore, to reach as many viewers as possible, you may want to advertise on Sunday Night Football, where viewership is highest, which will cost you even more.
- Network and TV show: Popular shows and TV networks will charge more for advertising slots. For example, you can expect to pay over $200 to air your commercial on CNN’s primetime news, but less than $65 on the Game Show Network.
- Seasonal events:Â 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.
- Time slots:Â 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.
- Commercial and campaign length:Â 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. Similarly, running your commercial for three months will also cost more than running it for one month.
- Location:Â 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:Â A half-hour show typically has two or three commercial breaks, each lasting two minutes. This equates to about 12 30-second commercials. The fewer available ad spots and the greater the demand (and competition), the higher the price.
TV ad production costs
Knowing how much it costs to advertise on TV also involves the cost of producing your ad. TV ad production costs will depend on the scale of your production. Blockbuster-style commercials with plenty of special effects will cost far more than a 15-second testimonial-style video. If you’re producing your video in-house, prepare at least $3,000, depending on your concept. You may also need extra to cover studio and video equipment rental costs.
TV ad production costs can include:
- Talent fees for actors or artists
- Rental fees for equipment like cameras, microphones, and lighting
- Studio or location rental costs
- Transportation and food costs for the crew
- Costume rentals
- Special effects editing
- Music production or licensing costs
- Drone operation and rental
Alternatively, you can outsource TV commercial ad production to agencies, which can cost upwards of $5,000 from full-service agencies like Straight North or less than $500 for individual services from Fiverr (like voiceovers or animations).
TV advertising: Pros and cons, who it’s best for, and top alternatives
There’s a reason TV ads have stuck around: They’re effective. TV commercials have brought businesses into consumers’ homes for decades, and getting a commercial on TV can instantly bring widespread awareness to your brand. They’re creative and effective. But on the flip side, they’re costly and difficult to measure.
| TV advertising pros | TV advertising cons |
|---|---|
| They can instantly reach a mass audience. This audience includes national and regional viewers across demographics, interests, and age groups. | TV ads can quickly get costly. If you want to reach a specific demographic or prime time slot, costs instantly skyrocket. They’re also susceptible to ad market fluctuations. |
| They offer a creative way to showcase your brand identity. TV commercials let you be as creative as you want in your ad’s messaging and treatment. Video also appeals to viewers’ emotions more than static images. | They’re difficult to measure. Unlike digital ads, there are no exact numbers that measure how effective your TV ads are, whether by impressions, engagements, or revenue. |
| TV ads grant you credibility and brand authority. About half of US adults view TV ads as the most trustworthy form of advertising, far more than online ads. | They’re difficult to target. Unlike digital ads your TV ad will only be able to target audiences by general demographic and interest. |
| Your commercial typically won’t share the screen with other brands. Unlike digital ads, your TV ad won’t be competing with dozens of other ads for the audience’s attention. | They’re more complicated to set up. TV ads aren’t something you plan and then immediately launch the next day. They require planning, production, and airing, which takes plenty of time and effort before seeing results. |
Who TV ads are best for
TV’s biggest attribute is its ability to build brand awareness and recognition among mass audiences in a specific area. Naturally, this makes TV ads a good fit for businesses that cater to a wide and diverse audience, like food or consumer goods.
If your target demographic is basically everybody, TV ads are a good option. Local TV ads will also be effective for location-based businesses like real estate or legal services.
- Businesses selling everyday consumables. Everyday products like packaged food, beverages, and toiletries are used by many, so they’re a natural fit for TV ads.
- Local services like realtors, lawyers, and medical practices. These target a wide audience demographic in a specific location, making them a good fit for local TV ads.
- Brands that target families, not individuals. Ads for toys, restaurants, and even theme parks can appeal to individual consumers, but more so to whole families. So they’re a good option for TV commercials on networks that target families who often sit together to watch TV.
- Any brand that wants mass brand recognition and credibility. TV appeals to the masses. So if you want your brand to be known by everyday people on the street, you’ll have a good chance with TV ads.
TV advertising alternatives
TV is just one of the many channels you can use to advertise your small business to a wide audience. Other channels like radio, print, and digital media have similar (or even lower) CPMs that might also better fit your specific needs.
For instance, digital media provides advanced audience targeting and has a lower cost barrier. Out-of-home (OOH) display ads are also a great way to reach a hyper-local audience.
Ad platform | Average CPM |
|---|---|
Radio and audio ads | $14.50 |
Digital video ads | $24 |
Digital display ads | $2.40 |
OOH ads | $5.50 |
Print ads | $31.50 |
Getting started with TV ads: The 4 stages of a successful production
TV ads take a lot more work to set up than other ad formats, so it’s important to plan them. There are four stages involved in producing a television commercial: pre-production, production, post-production, and finally, media buying and airing.
- Pre-production: The planning stage of your commercial. Brainstorm your ad concept, decide on your commercial’s length and when it’ll air, create a script and storyboard, and plan your overall budget and timeline. Also, decide the audience and TV networks you want to target.
- Production:Â This is the filming phase of your commercial, whether in-house or externally. This involves hiring your actors or artists and filming (or illustrating) your commercial based on your storyboard and script.
- Post-production: This is the editing and revisions stage, where you’ll piece together your filmed material and add music, voiceovers, and special effects. It’s also where you’ll do test screenings and revise based on feedback.
- Media buying and airing:Â The final stage is sending your ad off to be aired, which will depend on your chosen television format. For broadcast and local TV, call or email your chosen TV networks and inquire about their ad prices. Some broadcast TV networks have rate sheets on their websites. Cable and streaming TV ads, meanwhile, often have third-party platforms (like Vibe and DXMediaDirect) where you can set up your ad.
My advice is to prepare as much as possible in the pre-production stage. Plan your timelines, budgets, and other necessities down to the detail so you’re as prepared as possible and won’t cause any delays or go significantly over budget.
When I interned at a TV commercial production company, every detail was accounted for, including the number of scenes to shoot each day, shoot permits for each location, and the daily budget for everything from studio rent to lunch for the crew.
Planning is everything in TV production. If your plans are clear and detailed, the rest of your production will flow with few hitches.
5 expert tips for maximizing TV ad spend
Television advertising costs can be substantial, 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 to avoid wasted ad spend and improve your return on investment.
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 you want to drive branded search volume to a 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 the 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 rerun. The key here is to know your target audience. If they’re 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:Â 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)
TV ad rates can start at $5 CPM for a local TV ad and up to $45 CPM for a national broadcast TV ad, not including production costs. Cable TV ads start at $10 CPM, and streaming TV ads start at $15 CPM. However, these can vary depending on the competitiveness of your ad’s time slot, the length of your ad, the season your ad will air, and the audience you’re targeting.
Production costs depend on the scale of your production, but prepare at least $3,000 for an in-house production. Outsourcing to an ad agency can cost upwards of $5,000.
To calculate the cost for a one-minute TV commercial, divide the expected number of impressions your ad will reach by 1,000 and then multiply that number by the ad’s CPM.
For example, if the CPM of a local TV ad is $10 for a one-minute commercial and it’s expected to reach 50,000 audiences, your total ad cost will be $500. However, this also varies for high-demand ad spots like the Super Bowl, which can cost up to $8 million for a 30-second ad.
TV ads can be a good investment if you want to build brand awareness among a mass audience (instead of a specific demographic), for instance, if your product or service is for the general public, like mass-market goods.
Local TV ads specifically can also be helpful if you offer services to your local area (i.e., you’re a real estate agent or regional lawyer). Conversely, TV ads may not be the best investment if you want to target specific audience demographics or interests (use digital ads instead) or need specific results because TV ads take time to launch.
Bottom Line
Knowing how much a one-minute TV commercial costs isn’t always a straightforward answer because of the many factors involved. But it’s possible to calculate a general estimate. Aside from knowing television advertising costs, it’s also important to choose the best TV format for your ad, the factors influencing ad costs, and how much you’ll spend on producing your ad to get the most out of your budget.
