How Much Does a TV Commercial Cost in South Florida? (Real Ranges, No Games)
Most advertisers budget for the commercial and forget the airtime, or the reverse. Here are honest production ranges for a South Florida spot, what a local media buy costs, what to ask before you sign, and how to plan backward from your air date.
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Quick answer: Producing a professional TV commercial in South Florida typically costs $2,500 to $50,000+ for production alone, before airtime. A simple single-location :30 can start around $2,500–$5,000, a polished spot with local talent lands around $5,000–$15,000, and a fully scripted cinematic commercial can run $25,000–$75,000+. Airing it is a separate budget: about $3,000–$5,000 a month for local cable or streaming.
At Full Moon Creative, we've produced broadcast and streaming commercials for businesses and municipalities across Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach counties for 21+ years. Here's the transparent breakdown.
What is the difference between production cost and airtime?
TV commercial budgets have two separate halves, and confusing them is the most common mistake first-time advertisers make. Production pays to make the spot once. The media buy pays to air it, every month it runs. A strong spot with too little airtime behind it will underperform a simpler spot people actually see often enough to remember.
Production is making the commercial: crew, talent, locations, editing, graphics, and music licensing.
Media buy is airing the commercial: buying slots on local broadcast (WSVN, WPLG, WFOR, WTVJ), cable, or streaming platforms like Hulu, YouTube TV, and Roku.
A $15,000 spot with a $2,000 media buy will underperform a $10,000 spot backed by a $20,000 media buy. Frequency is what makes advertising work, and frequency is bought with the media budget.
What is the difference between production cost and the media buy? Production is the one-time cost of making the commercial, covering crew, talent, locations, editing, graphics, and music licensing. The media buy is the recurring cost of airing it on broadcast, cable, or streaming. They are separate budgets, and the second one is usually the larger of the two over the life of a campaign.
How much does each type of TV commercial cost?
An entry-level local spot runs about $2,500 to $5,000, a spokesperson spot $5,000 to $15,000, a scripted lifestyle commercial $20,000 to $50,000, and a cinematic brand campaign $40,000 to $100,000 or more. Streaming-only spots run $2,500 to $20,000 because delivery requirements are lighter than broadcast. Every scope differs, which is why we quote from a real conversation rather than a menu.
| Commercial Type | Production Range | What's Included |
|---|---|---|
| Entry-level local spot | $2,500 – $5,000 | Half-day shoot, lean crew, single location, one straightforward :30 edit |
| Local "spokesperson" spot | $5,000 – $15,000 | One shoot day, owner or local talent on camera, single location, one :30 edit |
| Testimonial-driven spot | $10,000 – $20,000 | Real customers, interview and b-roll style, :30 and :15 versions |
| Scripted lifestyle commercial | $20,000 – $50,000 | Professional actors, multiple locations, full crew, art direction, cutdown package |
| Cinematic brand campaign | $40,000 – $100,000+ | Multi-day production, casting, original or premium licensed music, full versioning suite |
| Streaming / CTV-only spot | $2,500 – $20,000 | Same production discipline, lighter delivery requirements than broadcast |
Media buy budgets for local South Florida campaigns typically start around $3,000–$5,000 per month for cable or streaming, and $10,000+ per month for a meaningful broadcast presence. Effective campaigns usually run three months or longer. A single month rarely buys enough frequency to be remembered.
What drives the cost of producing a commercial?
Five things set the production number: the concept and script, on-camera and voiceover talent, crew and production value, post-production, and broadcast deliverables. Talent and versioning are the two lines most often missing from a low quote, and they are the two that cause trouble on air date.
- Concept and scripting. A commercial is 30 seconds of persuasion, not 30 seconds of footage. Creative development, scripting, and storyboarding separate spots that sell from spots that merely exist.
- Talent. On-camera actors, voiceover artists, and their usage terms. Professional talent is a real line item, and usage terms are a detail cut-rate producers skip until it becomes a legal problem.
- Crew and production value. Proper lighting, cinema cameras, art direction, and audio engineering make a spot look like it belongs on TV instead of looking like an ad interrupting it.
- Post-production. Editing, color grading, motion graphics, sound mixing to broadcast loudness standards, licensed music, and versioning: :30, :15, and :06 cutdowns, plus vertical versions for social.
- Broadcast deliverables. Closed captioning, station-specific specs, and delivery to each network. Small line items that matter enormously when your air date arrives.
What should you confirm in a TV commercial quote?
Confirm who owns the finished spot, what the talent and music terms allow, which versions you get, and who delivers files to the stations. These are the questions a general video quote never has to answer, and the ones that decide whether your spot can run everywhere you paid to place it.
- Ownership of the final spot. With Full Moon Creative you own the final videos outright, with unlimited usage and no expiry.
- Talent usage. Which media (broadcast, streaming, social, web) and how long any hired actors or voiceover can run.
- Music. Whether the license covers broadcast and every digital channel for the full flight.
- Versions. Each length (:30, :15, :06) and each aspect ratio listed by name.
- Broadcast compliance. Captioning and loudness to spec, included, not "available."
- Station delivery. Who handles getting the files to each station or platform, and by what date.
- Revisions and changes. How many rounds are included and how changes beyond scope are priced. Ours: two rounds, with anything beyond scope quoted before work begins.
- Payment. Ours is a 50% deposit to reserve the shoot date and 50% on delivery, with milestone payments for larger multi-phase campaigns.
When does cutting corners on a commercial get expensive?
When the airtime costs more than the spot. If you spend $30,000 airing a commercial that doesn't convert, you didn't save money on production; you wasted the entire campaign. Production is the smallest variable and the biggest multiplier in the budget. A well-planned $3,500 spot will outperform a careless $10,000 one.
Television magnifies quality in both directions. A great spot builds credibility, because viewers associate broadcast polish with established businesses. A poorly made one tells thousands of potential customers, in HD, that you cut corners.
Red flags in a TV commercial quote:
- No mention of talent usage terms or music licensing
- No broadcast-spec deliverables (captioning, loudness compliance) in the scope
- One version of the spot, with no :15 or streaming cutdowns
- A package deal from the station itself with production thrown in nearly free. You get what you pay for, and it airs next to competitors who invested properly.
How do you plan a commercial backward from the air date?
Start from the first air date and the media buyer's file deadline, then work back through post-production, the shoot, and pre-production. Script and storyboard approval should happen before a shoot date is locked, because changing a concept on set is the most expensive revision there is.
Here is how a Full Moon Creative commercial runs:
- Discovery call. We scope the creative and the media buy together, agree on the air date, and map the production timeline to it. A custom line-item quote follows.
- Pre-production. Script, shot list, talent, and locations are locked in advance. Storyboards and AI previsualization show you the spot before the cameras roll, which is when concept changes cost the least.
- Shoot. On location anywhere in Broward, Miami-Dade, or Palm Beach, run by the founder-led senior team that planned it. FAA-certified drone coverage is available, with waivers for airspace many operators cannot fly.
- Post with two revision rounds. Edit, color, sound mix, and graphics, refined against your notes and then polished.
- Delivery and airing. The spot is delivered to broadcast spec with its cutdowns and vertical versions, and we plan and place the media across broadcast, cable, and streaming.
How should you size the media buy against the creative?
Decide both budgets together, because each one caps what the other can accomplish. Set the flight length and monthly media budget first, then size production to roughly a third to a half of the first flight, since the spot outlives the flight and gets reused.
- Decide the flight length first. Three months is the practical minimum for a local campaign. Anything shorter buys awareness that fades before it converts.
- Set the monthly media budget, then work backward. If you can sustain $5,000 a month for three months, that's a $15,000 media commitment, and it tells you what the production should cost.
- Keep production proportionate. As a rough rule, production is a healthy investment near a third to a half of the first campaign flight.
- Budget the versioning, not just the spot. The :15, the :06, and the vertical cuts let one production run on broadcast, CTV, YouTube, and social at the same time. That's the cheapest reach you will ever buy.
What do you get at each budget level?
$2,500 to $5,000
A lean entry point into TV and streaming. Half-day shoot, tight scope, one clear message. Best for businesses testing TV or CTV for the first time, planned with the same discipline as a bigger spot.
$5,000 to $15,000
A clean, credible local spot. Best for service businesses building name recognition: attorneys, medical practices, home services, restaurants.
$15,000 to $40,000
The sweet spot for businesses serious about growth. Professional talent, real art direction, and a full versioning package so one production feeds broadcast, streaming, and social.
$40,000 and up
Campaign-level creative built to run for a year or more. Regional brands, franchises, developers, and organizations where the commercial is the brand impression.
The bottom line
A TV commercial runs in living rooms, gyms, and waiting rooms across South Florida, often as someone's first impression of your business. Get the ratio between creative and airtime right, confirm the rights before you sign, and a spot you paid for once keeps working every month you put it on the air.
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