What Does a TV Commercial Actually Cost? Industry Standards Every Brand Should Know

If you've ever wondered whether what you're being quoted for a TV commercial is reasonable — or how it compares to what other brands are spending — this guide gives you the industry benchmarks to answer that question for yourself.

What is the AICP?

The Association of Independent Commercial Producers — known as the AICP — is the leading trade organization representing production companies that produce commercials in the United States.

Founded in 1972, AICP has grown to become a leading authority in the world of commercial production, made up of over 400 member companies including production companies, post-production houses, and suppliers.

The AICP sets industry standards for how commercial budgets are structured, tracks production costs annually, and negotiates labor agreements with the major unions that govern commercial production. When producers, agencies, and clients talk about industry-standard commercial costs, they are almost always referencing AICP data and guidelines.

You can learn more and access their resources directly at their website.

The national average — and what it actually includes

According to the AICP 2025 Guidelines, the average production bid for a national thirty-second television commercial was $387,000. That number stops most smaller brands in their tracks — and understandably so. But before drawing any conclusions from it, it's worth understanding exactly what it covers and what kind of production it represents.

The $387,000 average reflects a professionally produced national broadcast spot made through an independent production company at union scale with full agency involvement. It is not a floor and it is not a ceiling. It is a benchmark — the midpoint of professional broadcast production at the national level in the United States. Productions exist above it and below it, and the right number for any given brand depends entirely on scope, distribution, and what the commercial needs to accomplish.

At the lower end of the spectrum, local cable operators and media companies sometimes offer to produce simple commercials as part of a media buy package — these are designed to fill airtime rather than build brands, and the production quality reflects that. At the upper end, major national campaigns with celebrity talent and elaborate production can run into the millions for production alone before a single dollar of media is spent.

What makes the $387,000 average higher than what most regional and national brands actually spend is the union factor — union crew rates, SAG-AFTRA talent fees, agency markups, and the overhead of major market productions pull the average significantly upward.

Independent production companies operating without agency middlemen and without union requirements typically deliver broadcast-quality work at $50,000 to $150,000 depending on scope, crew size, shoot days, and talent.

Why the national average is so high — the union factor

The primary driver of the $387,000 national average is union labor. National broadcast productions in major markets are typically produced under SAG-AFTRA agreements for on-screen talent and IATSE agreements for crew. SAG-AFTRA minimum session fees for a principal performer start at $735.65 per day — plus usage fees that accumulate every time the commercial airs, adding 30 to 60 percent to the total talent cost over the life of the campaign. Union crew rates carry similar structures: mandated minimum day rates, overtime rules, and required pension and health contributions for every person on set.

For brands producing outside the union framework, these costs are substantially lower. Non-union talent runs $250 to $1,000 per day with no residual obligations. Crew rates are negotiated directly rather than mandated by contract. This is the primary reason high-quality commercial production is accessible at budgets well below the national average — without compromising what actually matters on screen.

What the $387,000 does not include

The $387,000 covers everything required to physically make the commercial — pre-production, crew, equipment, locations, on-set talent session fees, post-production, and the agency's markup on top of the production company's bid.

What it does not include is the creative development work that happens before production begins — concept development, scripting, and pitch work — which a separate creative agency typically bills at $15,000 to $75,000 or more.

It also does not include talent residuals, which accumulate each time the commercial airs and can add $8,000 to $25,000 or more per principal performer per thirteen-week cycle for national campaigns.

And it never includes the media buy — what it costs to actually air the commercial — which is always a completely separate investment.

What production actually costs at the non-union level

For brands producing professionally at the regional and national level without union requirements — which describes the majority of mid-size brand advertisers — independent production companies operating without agency middlemen typically deliver broadcast-quality work at $50,000 to $150,000.

This is a production-only range. It assumes the creative development work — concept development, scripting, and creative direction — has already been completed, either by a separate creative agency or included as part of an integrated creative production company's engagement.

If creative development is a separate cost, expect to add at least $15,000 - $75,000 on top of the production budget. If you're working with a company that handles both creative development and production under one roof, the all-in range for the full engagement typically runs $75,000 to $225,000 depending on scope.

This is the realistic range for a production that includes a professional crew scaled to this level of production, a cinematographer and director working at national broadcast quality standard, professional non-union cast, one to two shoot days at a real location, full post-production including a proper color grade and sound mix, and broadcast master delivery.

Generally below $100,000 all in budget you begin making tradeoffs that show up on screen. Not always dramatically — but consistently. A smaller crew means less lighting control. Less lighting control means less precise shadow management, less flattering treatment of product and talent, and a visual quality that reads as slightly less premium on a television screen. Fewer shoot hours means fewer setups and less visual variety in the edit. A compressed post-production budget means a simplified color grade rather than a full cinematic treatment.

These tradeoffs are sometimes worth making — for a controlled scope, a simple concept, or a brand that is not competing on production quality. But for brands whose advertising is meant to signal premium positioning, these are not invisible compromises.

Putting all of this together, here is how the two production paths compare across every cost component:

The Full Cost Picture — Two Paths Compared

	Union Production + Agency	Non-Union Independent
Production budget (avg.)	$387,000	$50,000 — $150,000
Creative development	$15,000 — $75,000+ additional	Included or minimal
Talent residuals (per performer, per 13-week cycle)	$8,000 — $25,000+	None or minimal
Agency markup	~17.5% added to production bid	None
Media buy	Separate & additional	Separate & additional
TOTAL	$410,000 — $488,000+	$50,000 — $150,000

Same quality standard. Significantly different cost structure.

How production cost relates to media buy

Production cost and media spend are two completely separate budgets — but they are not independent of each other. The quality of the production determines how efficiently each dollar of media spend works.

Industry guidance on production-to-media ratios varies by source and campaign type, but a commonly cited benchmark from advertising industry analysts is that production should represent 20 to 30 percent of the total media investment — as a separate budget on top of it, not carved out of it.

For premium brand categories including luxury goods and big-ticket purchases, that ratio can be higher. The underlying logic is consistent regardless of the exact percentage: the quality of the creative determines how hard each media dollar works, and underinvesting in production relative to media spend is one of the most common and costly mistakes brands make in advertising.

Applied to common media investment levels, the benchmark looks like this:

*The following applies to brands running meaningful regional or national media campaigns. Local productions supported by media buys under $100,000 operate under different economics and are not reflected here.

Media Buy	Recommended Production Investment (20-30%)
$100,000	$20,000 — $30,000
$250,000	$50,000 — $75,000
$500,000	$100,000 — $150,000
$1,000,000	$200,000 — $300,000
$2,000,000	$400,000 — $600,000

A commercial that achieves strong unaided brand recall — the ability of a viewer to name your brand without a prompt after a single viewing — reduces the number of impressions required for the media buy to do its job. A commercial that fails to achieve unaided recall requires significantly more repetition, which means more media spend, to reach the same outcome. Every dollar invested in production quality either earns or wastes a multiple of itself in the media budget.

What Intrigue Studios produces and what it costs

Intrigue Studios operates as both a creative agency and a production company. That means we handle concept development, scripting, and creative direction alongside the full production — under one roof, through one engagement, without the agency markup layer that adds 15 to 25 percent to productions where creative development and production are handled by separate companies.

Our productions scale to fit the project. A focused regional spot with a lean scope looks different from a multi-day national campaign, and we structure crew, equipment, and post-production accordingly. What stays consistent across every production is the quality standard — work that holds up on broadcast television, supports a real media buy, and performs the way a well-produced commercial should.

Most of our productions fall somewhere in the range covered by this article. We produce non-union in most cases, which is the primary reason our clients receive national-broadcast-quality work at budgets well below what the same production would cost under full union agreements. When a project requires the scale or access to on-screen talent of a union production, we do handle that as well.

For regional brands with a defined scope and a focused concept, our productions start at a range accessible to most serious advertisers — and scale up from there based on what the project actually requires.

For a complete overview of how our process works from concept to delivery, see Our TV Commercial Production Process →

Start a Project or Schedule a Call