A TV commercial in Central Europe costs from roughly 2 000 eur for a simple one day shoot, 4 000 to 12 000 eur for a typical brand spot, and the whole process takes three to six weeks from an approved script to a finished file. Here is the budget split by phase, the real timeline we plan against, and the places where commercials quietly go over budget.
In this article
Key takeaways
- Simple spot, one shoot day, two or three people on set: 2 000 to 4 000 eur. Typical brand spot: 4 000 to 12 000 eur. Spot with cast, location and a director: 15 000 eur and up.
- Our budgets split roughly 20 % prep, 45 % shoot day, 35 % post production.
- Timeline: 1 to 2 weeks of prep, 1 to 2 shoot days, 2 to 3 weeks of post including your feedback rounds.
- The shoot day is the biggest line on the invoice, but its size is decided during prep. An hour of prep costs a tenth of an hour on set.
- Commercials overrun on the third round of edit notes, not on gear. Put the number of revision rounds in the contract.
What does the TV commercial production process look like?
Five phases: concept and script, pre production, the shoot, post production, and delivery in the formats each channel needs. That sequence is the industry standard and it is worth reading a detailed breakdown of the tv commercial production process before you brief anyone, because most disputes with a studio come from skipping a step, not from a bad camera.
The part that surprises first time clients is how little of the process is filming. On a typical brand spot we spend one or two days with a camera and about four weeks on everything around it. When someone quotes you a price for a shoot day only, you are not getting a commercial. You are renting a crew.
If your brief is broader than a single spot, we broke the numbers down for other formats in our piece on how much a corporate video costs. A commercial is always more expensive per second than an interview or product video, because it carries more shots per second of finished footage.
How is a commercial budget split by phase?
Roughly 20 % prep, 45 % shoot day, 35 % post production. On an 8 000 eur spot that works out like this:
- Prep, around 1 600 eur. Script, storyboard, casting, location scouting, schedule, permits. None of it shows up on screen, which is exactly why it gets cut first. That is a mistake.
- Shoot day, around 3 600 eur. Crew, gear, transport, cast, catering. The biggest number on the invoice, decided during prep.
- Post production, around 2 800 eur. Edit, colour, sound, music licence, graphics, captions, exports for broadcast and social.
Here is the practical consequence: you cannot make a shoot day cheaper on the shoot day. If at ten in the morning you discover the scene does not work, you are paying a full crew to brainstorm. Watch how many people orbit a single thirty second spot:
How long does a commercial take to produce?
Three to six weeks for a typical brand spot, counted from the moment you approve the script. That is 1 to 2 weeks of prep, 1 to 2 shoot days, and 2 to 3 weeks of post production including your feedback.
That last part matters. Those three weeks of post include the time you need to watch the cut and send notes. If that takes you ten days, the deadline moves ten days, and it is not the editor stalling. If you have a fixed campaign date, count backwards and add a week of buffer.
Rush jobs exist and they cost something other than money. We can turn a spot around in ten days by dropping casting and shooting with people we already know. Squeezing post under a week means one round of notes and no experiments with colour.
Where do commercials actually go over budget?
On notes, not on gear. The typical overrun goes like this: we agree on two rounds of revisions, then on the third round a marketing director who never saw the script wants to change the ending. Changing the ending means a reshoot. A reshoot means another shoot day, which is 45 % of the budget again.
So we do two things. We write the number of revision rounds and the price of each extra one into the contract. And we insist the script is approved by whoever has the final word before anyone books a camera. It is the cheapest insurance in the process.
Music is the runner up. A client falls in love with the track from a reference video, and the licence costs more than the whole spot. Stock music at 50 eur solves nine spots out of ten, but it has to be chosen before the edit, not after, because the edit is cut to a rhythm.
When should you skip the commercial?
When you have nowhere to run it. This is the most honest thing we can tell you as a video production studio: an 8 000 eur spot with no media budget is an expensive business card. We have watched companies spend a whole annual marketing budget on production and then have nothing left to distribute it. The spot got 400 views on a company profile and died.
The rule we use with clients: budget at least as much for media as you spent on production, ideally double. With 10 000 eur total, a 3 500 eur spot plus 6 500 eur of media beats a 9 000 eur spot with 1 000 eur behind it. A rougher picture seen ten thousand times beats a prettier one seen a hundred times.
One more case: when you need to explain something. A commercial is a tool for emotion and recall, not for unpacking a complex service. An interview, a case study or a series of shorter videos will do that better. If you are not sure which format your brief needs, our checklist of questions before hiring a production company helps.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a 30 second commercial cost?
From 2 000 eur for a simple spot with a small crew, 4 000 to 12 000 eur for a typical brand spot, and 15 000 eur and up with cast and a director. Length matters less than the number of shots and locations: thirty seconds with fifteen shots costs more than sixty seconds with five.
Does the price include buying airtime?
No, production and media are two separate budgets. The production fee covers script, shoot and post including exports in the technical spec a broadcaster requires. Airtime is billed by the channel or your media agency from their own rate card, and it usually costs several times more than making the spot.
Do I need a storyboard or is a script enough?
If the spot goes through a client approval round, always get a storyboard. Everyone reads a script differently, nobody misreads a picture. A storyboard usually costs 200 to 500 eur and saves at least one reshoot, so it pays for itself. For a simple spot with one location and no cast, a shot list is enough.
How long does a commercial stay usable?
Usually two to three years, as long as it contains no specific prices, promotions or seasonal cues. That is why we suggest shooting two versions in one day: one with the current offer, one neutral that still works in two years. On the same shoot day the second version costs a few hundred eur extra.
If you are weighing up a spot and want to know which of those ranges your brief lands in, get in touch. We will give you an estimate even when the answer turns out to be that a commercial is not what you need.
