How much does a commercial cost to air?

Answer 1

It really varies, depending on the size of the radio station, and the size of the city

it is in. In other words, if you want to advertise on a small station (one that only

broadcasts with 1000 watts of power), in a small city or town (one that does not

have a large population), it will cost a lot less than if you want to advertise on a

big station (one that has perhaps 50,000 watts of power) in a big city like New

York or Los Angeles. A station in a small city may charge you as little as $15 for

a commercial, while a station in a large city may charge as much as $500 to

$1000 dollars for just one commercial. Another factor is how long of a

commercial you want-- a 30 second commercial will cost less than a one minute

commercial.

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Addendum:

All of the factors that go into determining the cost to air your commercial refer

back to one objective: How many ears are likely to hear it. That's why the price

depends on the area the station's signal covers, the population living within that

area, the size of the city or town, the time of day when you want your commercial

to play, and the audience share of that station in the 'market' where it broadcasts

(the station's 'ratings'.).

Remember: The radio station is the seller, the advertiser is the buyer, your ears

are the product being sold, and the program 'format' is the scent of nectar that

attracts the ears to the seller's shop. The more ears are likely to hear my message,

the more it will cost me to buy enough of the radio station's time to air it.

Except on publicly supported radio. The whole operation is different over there.

I don't want to inject a lot of inappropriate opinion or politics into DL's territory,

but I would go so far as to suggest that publicly supported radio is the only part

of the 'air waves' where YOU are in fact the customer, to be wooed, courted, and

accomodated by the broadcaster without a further agenda.

Answer 2

That completely depends on which radio station, in which "market" area, at what time of day,

and ultimately on how many ears are likely to hear it.

Every network, every station, every city, and every hour of the day has different spot announcement pricing.

-- On a low power AM station in a farm town at 3:00 AM on Sunday morning,

you could probably get a whole 60 seconds for 5 bucks.

-- The estimated cost to air a 30-second commercial during this year's Superbowl

was $2.6 million.