How Much Does a Commercial Cost in 2026?
A Straight Answer for Local Businesses on How We Work
If you've spent any time searching for commercial production pricing, you already know the frustration. Vague answers. "It depends." Contact us for a quote. Websites full of impressive reel footage with zero mention of what any of it actually costs…which can be scary for a small business.
So here's a straight answer, because you deserve one before you pick up the phone.
Why Prices Vary So Wildly
A commercial can cost $1,500 or $150,000 (or more). Both are real numbers and neither is automatically wrong, they just serve completely different clients with completely different needs.
On the high end, large production companies and full-service agencies build significant overhead into every project. Multiple production days. Large crews. Casting agencies. Location fees. Post-production facilities with hourly rates that would make your accountant flinch. When a New York agency quotes you $20,000 for a :30 spot, that price isn't necessarily dishonest, it's just reflecting a production model built around big brands with big budgets and a lot of people in the room who all need to get paid. But, do you need that for your business?
That model has its place. It's just probably not the right fit for a law firm in Westchester, a car dealership on Long Island, or a medical practice in the Hudson Valley trying to get a quality commercial on streaming TV without blowing their entire marketing budget for the year on :30 of advertising.
On the low end, you get what you pay for. The cable companies usually offer to produce your commercial for free (when you buy air-time from them) is giving you exactly that…a “free-looking” commercial. Anyone who's ever seen a locally produced cable access-style spot, knows the “cable look”. Complete with a generic script written by someone who probably hasn’t looked at your website or asked any basic questions about your business, has inconsistent branding (hopefully they’ll at least actually use your logo, but probably nothing else that actually matches your brand), and overall just looks and feels like a commercial from 25 years ago. OR…these days there’s also AI created spots (ugh!). Yes, cable companies are now using an AI platform to make a commercial for you. They feed in your website and a minute later AI spits out a cheap looking motion graphic style commercial with a few images from your website. Those free options might get your name on screen, but is it really going to make anyone rush to contact you? Are you willing to take that chance to save a little money on production?
Who This Article Is Actually For
This is for the business owner who's serious about marketing but not wasteful about it. You've probably already spent money on advertising…maybe a lot of it, and you've had mixed results. Maybe you worked with an agency that delivered okay work at a price tag that never quite felt justified. Maybe you've been running the same commercial for two years and you're starting to wonder why the phone isn't ringing the way it used to (if that’s you, check out this article about keeping your campaign fresh).
You're not looking for the cheapest option. You're looking for the right option.
Law firms. Car dealerships. Private medical and dental practices. Home improvement businesses. Restaurants. Private schools. Local retail businesses. Service businesses of all kinds. Funeral homes. Even online-only businesses looking to get their brand in front of streaming TV audiences for the first time. Those are all examples of businesses we’ve worked with. They are the clients who get the most out of what we do, because they have real marketing goals, a real budget to work with, and enough business sense to know that production quality reflects directly on their brand.
What a $3,000 Commercial Actually Gets You
Our broadcast commercial production package starts at $3,000. Here's what that includes.
A professional production day with an experienced crew. Broadcast-quality camera and lighting (and audio if needed). Direction and scripting support. And critically…both a :30 and a :15 version, fully edited and formatted for every platform you need to be on. Traditional broadcast TV. Local cable. Streaming platforms including Hulu, Roku, Netflix, YouTube TV, and Amazon Prime Video (and any others you can think of).
One production day. One investment. Every platform covered.
The :15 cutdown matters more than most people realize. Streaming platforms and digital advertising frequently use shorter formats and in most cases, viewers can’t skip them…so a :15 is another useful asset for your campaign.
For businesses that don't need us to come out and film anything, we offer packages starting at $1,400 using stock footage, photography, and motion graphics. The production value is real even without a camera crew.
Why We Don't Charge More
Mainly because most of the time, we work “small”. 1-2 person crew, not a room full of people who need to get paid. We are capable of handling larger jobs, but small is kinda our niche and we like it…so we roll with it.
In addition, this is the part most production companies won't tell you. We price the way we do because we want you to actually have money left for your air-buy. The commercial is the asset, but the “media buy” is what puts it in front of people. A gorgeous $15,000 production that you can barely afford to run anywhere isn't serving your business, it's serving someone else's portfolio.
If your commercial looks great and your campaign generates results, you come back. You refer us to other businesses (which happens a lot). We build a long-term relationship that works for both of us. That's the model.
If you spend everything on production and have almost nothing left for placement, and the campaign underperforms because the reach wasn't there, you don't come back…and honestly, that's not a result we'd be proud of regardless of how good the footage looked.
We've been doing this for over 25 years. We know what a commercial needs to look and sound like to hold up on a 65-inch 4K television and compete with national advertising. We take the time to learn about our clients’ needs and who the commercials should be targeting. We also know that the businesses we work with are running real operations with real budgets, and that every dollar matters.
The Streaming Opportunity Nobody's Telling You About
Maybe you’ve thought that cable/commercial advertising is dead or not worth it, but here's something worth understanding about where commercial advertising is right now.
Streaming TV has leveled the playing field for local businesses in a way that traditional broadcast never did. Your commercial can be targeted to specific zip codes, household income brackets, home-ownership status, search history, content interests and this list goes on…and on. A home improvement company can reach homeowners in their service area who've been browsing renovation content. A private school can reach households with children in specific age ranges. A law firm can target by geography and demographic.
You're not buying a time slot and hoping the right people are watching. You're buying the right people, specifically.
The production investment to get a commercial on these platforms is the same as it's always been. The targeting capability is something that simply didn't exist in local advertising ten years ago. For a medium-sized local business with a real marketing budget, this is one of the most significant opportunities available right now for your ROI, and most of your competitors probably haven't figured it out yet.
A Few Things That Affect Production Cost
The prices listed above are our “base” prices. In the interest of full transparency, here's what can move the price up from our base package:
Longer travel time from our home base in Mahopac NY.
Multiple locations add time and logistics.
Location rentals…if we need to rent a studio or a specific location for filming.
Talent…professional actors or on-camera spokespeople, adds casting and fees.
Complex scripts with multiple scenes, props, or special requirements take longer to produce and possibly additional crew.
Drone footage
Animation or motion graphics-heavy productions have their own production considerations.
Multiple commercial variations for different audiences or campaigns, we can plan for that in a single production day to keep costs efficient, but there will be additional editing costs.
And most importantly…air-time/media buys. The costs outlined here are just for production, not any advertising campaigns. We partner with trusted media professionals who handle targeting, placement, and analytics, and when you work with us, you get access to that network too.
None of these are reasons to avoid a more involved production if your brand calls for it. They're just the variables worth understanding upfront so there are no surprises. In reality, most of our clients pay right around our base package price. The most common add-on, when there is one, is shooting multiple commercial versions, filmed in the same production day, which could be different messaging, different audiences, or seasonal variations. Since the crew and equipment are already there, it's the most cost-efficient way to build out a campaign, and the additional cost is editing time, not another full production day.
What to Do Next
If you're a local business in the NY tri-state area, Long Island or Hudson Valley considering a commercial for the first time…or reconsidering after a previous experience that didn't quite deliver, let’s have a conversation.
Bring your goals, your budget range, and any questions about platforms, targeting, or what the production process actually looks like. We'll give you straight answers, the same way we've tried to give them here.
Recommended Reading: How to Produce Ads for Hulu & CTV: A Guide for NY Businesses
About the Author
Mike Meyerson is the founder of Absolute Motion Video, a commercial production company serving businesses across the NY tri-state area and Hudson Valley for over 25 years.
