Local Television Commercial Production Rates?

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ItsJanosz

Active member
Hey all. My company has been asked to produce a commercial for a small pizza joint. It's for local cable, will air in three or four cities.
Can anyone give me an idea of what rates people generally charge for this sort of thing? We're a new company, fresh out of SC film school, so we're obviously looking to cut the guy a little break. But we want to have an idea of what kind of market we're talking about here. Idea conception, production and post will be handled by us.
So, what kinds of budgets have you guys seen, and then also what kinds of fees?
Thanks!
 
Re: Local Television Commercial Production Rates?

I've seen local spots (Colorado) done for as little as 2K. That was with a marketing company that also got them a break on broadcast rates. It was very basic spot (A woman showing daily specials at a liquor store)

Comcast Cable charges 1K just for you to use their facilities for a shoot.

I looked for local spots, then went to the merchants and asked what it cost. They were all willing to give me the info I needed. One even asked me if I would be interested in shooting his next ad. So ask around. I imagine your market rates are a little higher.
 
Re: Local Television Commercial Production Rates?

Check with your local cable company to see what their production rates are. Where I live, they practically give the spots away so it's nearly impossible to compete based on price. And I'm not suggesting you should either. Being the WalMart of production companies does more harm than good. The problem I'm faced with is, local advertisers expect TV spots for cheap but at the same time complain about how crappy the cable company produced spots look. They also don't grasp the concept that a crappy spot reflects on their business. I've had a client or two who have seen the light too.

$1500-2000 for a :30 for starters isn't out of line at all, provided it's decent. $5K would probably be considered the minimum in some areas. A spot for regional use should command even more.
 
Re: Local Television Commercial Production Rates?

Ive done freelance work on cable spots for Comcast and Cablevision. They charge bargain basement rates for spots, just enough to cover the shooting and editing, because they make there money in the actual airing of the spots. If they shoot a 30 sec. spot for prices ive seen ranging from 600 - 1500, and that includes the editing, they know they'll make there revenue from the clients paying to air them.
 
Re: Local Television Commercial Production Rates?

We've produced around thirty local spots in the Los Angeles area, tough to do and really make any money. We charge a minimum of $1,500, and have charged up to 5 k for them. I always suggest that the client opt for multiple commercials that can all be shot in one or two days, bringing the cost down somewhat. I generally need to make at least $2,500 per in order to do scripting, shooting, directing, editing and transfers to beta sp. Again, the problem is that the cable companies will do it for next to nothing.
 
Re: Local Television Commercial Production Rates?

I've heard some TV stations and cable providers shoot/edit the spot for FREE if the client agree to buying a certain amount air time. Geez. I don't know about you guys, but I have no interest in working at this level of the business.
 
Re: Local Television Commercial Production Rates?

I've griped about that before as well. Seems there should be an anti-trust violation going on.
 
Re: Local Television Commercial Production Rates?

The best thing that you can do is offer better quality, scripting, shooting and editing than the cable companies. They don't do bells and whistles AT all.
 
Re: Local Television Commercial Production Rates?

Cable companies are the anti Christ!!

Where I live...they own all the rights to broadcasting into my home. it is a monopoly, now they want to shoot it too? I remember not long ago when shaw cable was petitioning the CRTC for a rate increase because a certain satellite company was nawing away at their revenues. Trouble is, they owned the satellite company. I hate Cable only seconded by 90% of what they pipe to me >:(
 
I work at a local FOX affiliate, and our rate is $250.00. They have to buy airtime for the rate. I have been a producer/Editor/Photographer for several years at the station. I almost have enough business through freelance to quit my job(working for the man).I can tell you this line of work beats working at a factory, but shooting mom and pop stores everyday gets old. You don't have much room for creativity and it gets boring. You can make some money if you are willing to shoot a spot that looks better than the competetion(on your own)We shoot with DVCPRO(ENG)cameras, while they are good cameras they are not really meant for producing commercals. My spots that I have produced with my panny stomps what I do here at work like a grape.
 
i work at a Time Warner Cable production facility and our rate for a 30 second spot is $975 for two hours shooting...3 hours Avid editing...2 hours graphics, Mainly logos.

we shoot with a Sony DVW 790.

Note. Any additional shoot time is $150 per hour. Any additional Editing or graphics time is $100 per hour.

With the work we do (5 producers) this is an absolute steal.
But, alas some people are never happy.

We also use Maya, Toon boom and After Effects.

You can make good spots for a low price...you just have to realize some aren't going to be that great and just do what you can.
 
Up here in alaska I've seen spots go for $300 for low quality, and $1500 for the REALLY good guys.

NOTE: I'm a semi-good guy up here, and mine go for about $600-$800
 
A lot of people mention that the cable companies will do the shoot for free but that is only if they buy ENOUGH air time. Alot of mom and pop places really cant afford a huge amount of air time. So there would seem to be a market for the mom and pops that cant commit to a huge campaign. I alsounderstand that you can approach the cable company as an advertsing agency and get a commission per spot wich allows you to resell the spot to the client. where i live i think its a 15% commission. So now i can approach Momma Mia's Pizza and hair care center. sell her a commercial for $XX and then also sell her 1 spot or 1000 spots. I get my commercial money and i get 15% on each spot i sell her.
 
This post reminded me of when I was traveling through Idaho last year (maybe montana) and overnighted in this town, after watching the local cable for five minutes I couldn't believe the terrible quality that was being done for these local businesses....
 
Smithgalltv has the right idea but there is much more involved. When you become an advertising agency you become responsible for the clients billing. If they don't pay you must agree to make payment.

I have owned an advertising agency since 1984 and have been producing tv spots and long form video since 1987. Much of what you all have been talking about is very much true, but here are some reasons for your dilemma.

Cable TV has been around a lot less time than Newspaper or Radio. Newspaper and Radio have never charged for production, therefore establishing the "do it for free" problem.
Of course producing a tv spot is much more time consuming and costly, but the client doesn't care.

Many agencies have just avoided recommeding cable tv because buying outside production cuts too deeply into any profit the agency would make.
They can't ignore it any longer. Too many car dealers and regional advertisers have been exposed to the power of cable tv, both from a cost perspective and because it brings in business.

There is a ripe environment out there. The demand is increasing and the need for a "professional look" could never be more important.
Consider overhead (what it cost your to make a tv spot). Before I switched to a NLE system, I was insuring over $150,000 in equipment. Now the overhead is a fraction of that.

My point being, don't try to establish your price on an arbitrary number. Find out what the cable company charges and charge less and produce your commercials faster and with more customer service. It won't be long before the account executives (who actually sell the air time and recommend production companies) will find out about you.

If you write the script, shoot the footage, edit and master. The only out of pocket (costs of goods sold) should be a voice-over and beta sp tape stock.

You can be much more competive. Once you become known and have a track record, then you can screw around with price.
 
Gary,

That was a very informative post. You mentioned Beta Sp tapes, did you mean for the final product, meaning you transfer your final product to beta sp so the station can use it or did you imply that the commercial be shot on a beta cam? obvisouly this is a dvx board so most of us would expect to use that but of course the cable company will show up with their normal ENG type of camera.
 
just as an update to this topic. I have recently verbally contratced with three seperate businesses to shoot their commercials specificaly for the Video On Demand feature that most cable companies are either using now or will be very soon. The cable company is totaly col with this and i think that once the spots are in the can we can get more business. because the VOD is a longer format, like 3-5 minutes i think the cable co wasnt keen on doing it. more time and effort than the pan+pan+ graphic+VO that they usually do. Also because we approached the cable co with the media buy the client was already ours and they woudnt want to intervene there anyway. So guess i am saying there is a market available. We havent finalized a shoot yet so we are still working towards it but we have verbal commitment and we have met with the client (he is over all three locations) to go over script ideas and are now in the process of writing rough outlines. i will keep you all posted.
 
The real deal cable companies, Adelphia for one, here in L.A. will accept Beta Sp, Mini Dv and DVC Pro for the final product. We have produced around 30 commercials in the past couple of years, but they are a pain where you sit down.
 
maverick,

What dont you liek about them? I looked at a few of your productions on your website. A lot of variety. Here in Florida we cant do lawyers commercials like yours. The florida bar will only allow lawyers of the firm in the commercials, not even secretaries and then they have to be shot against a colored background or their office. So basically every lawyer commercial is identical. Wish we had more creativity then all advertise a lot.
 
The Beta SP is only for the final air copy to go to the cable or broadcast outlet. There are some places starting to accept dv cam or mini dv but most still want Beta SP, besides only one request for beta sp demands that you have the capability.
I don't shoot on anything but dv now, but I have kept a deck of most every format though, 3/4, 3/4sp, svhs, beta etc., just in case a client has source footage.
We have been approached to do those vod tapes also, but with a cost of $1000 to $1500 per produced minute, most clients will need cpr. That and the fact that it takes to many hours to produce is the reason most cable companies don't get involved.
 
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