TV Talk Discussion Group

Topic: TV ad rates

Do you have any idea how much it costs to buy commercial time during one of your favorite shows? Advertising Age has posted specific figures for this season. (Prices can change if a show's viewership does.) Basically, this listing indicates which shows are most valuable to their networks. I rounded the numbers, and they are all in thousands.  In general, the shows on the low end are in danger of cancellation since they are not bringing in so much money. (Medium, Ghost Whisperer, and Numbers are winning their time periods on Friday so they're not doing as badly as the chart makes it look. Newsmagazines, reality shows, and Jay Leno are cheap to produce so they also are in better shape than they might look.)

Price for a 30-second ad
Sunday Night Football 340
Grey's 240
Desperate Housewives 228
Two & a Half Men 227
Family Guy 215
Simpsons 201
CSI 199
Big Bang Theory 192
The Office 191
House 183
DWTS 179
Private Practice 175
FlashForward 175
30 Rock 159
Cleveland Show 159
Survivor 152
How I Met Your Mother 145
Mentalist 141
Brothers &Sisters 140
CSI Miami 140
Amer. Dad 137
NCIS 133
Modern Family 130
CSI: NY 128
Lie to Me 128
Glee 127
Good Wife 127
Fringe 120
Parks & Recreation 120
Community 120
Criminal Minds 116
Amazing Race 110
Eastwick 110
Heroes 109
Accidentally on Purpose 108
NCIS: LA 107
Bones 107
Cougar Town 103
L&O: SVU 102
Cold Case 100
The Middle 98
the forgotten 97
Three Rivers 96
60 Minutes 94
Castle 93
Mercy 91
Hank 91
Numbers 85
Old Christine 80
Gary Unmarried 80
Ghost Whisperer 78
Trauma 76
Medium 72
Ugly Betty 65
20/20 62
Law & Order 60
Til Death 57
Dollhouse 56
Dateline  55
Brothers 54
 Jay Leno 49-66 depending on the night

And for the CW, a separate listing since as a smaller network their shows all come out on the low end of the listing:
Top Model 93
Gossip Girl 59
OTH 56
90210 54
Melrose 49
Vampire Diaries 39 (I'm sure this number is low, and should actually be somewhat higher than whatever Melrose is getting. The show is doing much better than had been expected.)
Smallville 33
Supernatural 32

You know the other thing I wonder about sometimes?  The types of ads they show on different channels and with different programming.  For instance, I always feel smarter when I watch a news channel simply because the caliber of ads is so much higher; they get the Microsoft, IBM and more intellectual ads, whereas watching a daytime soap will give you the "ring around the collar" and similar annoying ones about toilet cleaners and the like.  Big shows like "Grey's Anatomy" will get you a lot of young-married ads (stuff for setting up & decorating your new house).  Overnight programming is ALL about erectile disfunction ... you daytime watchers have it so much better!!  Gee whiz I'm sick of that stuff.

Anyway, it's interesting when you start paying attention to the types of things sold on different shows.  And you sorta get an idea which advertisers cost the stations more.

It costs much more than $92 for a 30 second spot.  It costs more than that for a magazine ad!

Replies: (list all replies)

A reputable source that's been printing this sort of info for years has published these figures I cited, so your claim that they're inaccurate is not something I'm just going to believe without some proof of what you're saying. Where's the evidence to support you? Link to reputable site, article, anything? And the numbers are upfront figures. The networks have to set some sort of fee before the season begins. These are the upfront prices that Advertising Age compiled. Like I said, rates will fluctuate based on viewership.

I just realized, maybe you didn't note the part of my post where I stated that all the numbers are in thousands? I was getting tired of typing at a certain point and simply didn't feel like going through and adding ',000' to every single listing. So I thought that saying up top the numbers were in thousands would be good enough. So where I have '92,' for instance, it doesn't mean '$92,' it means '$92,000.'

lisa3: Yes, I must have missed that part. Then the figures do sound about right, although they always change after sweeps. eom

I think some of them are a bit off even now. Like Vampire Diaries seems low, and CSI seems high considering its big drop in the 18-49 demo so far this season. House and Big Bang Theory also seem pretty low, considering how well they've been doing this year. It will be interesting to see updated numbers after sweeps (if any are made available). eom

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