TL;DR
- "What does a TVC cost?" is really two bills: making the commercial, and buying the airtime to run it. A production quote only covers the first.
- With us, producing a commercial costs RM30,000 to RM120,000. The bottom is a tightly scoped single-day piece with a real crew on it; the top is a multi-day shoot with a full crew, cast and a set.
- Five things move the number: crew size, shoot days, cast and talent, sets and locations, and the finishing (grade, sound design, and a version for each placement). Running time isn't one of them.
- Easy to leave out of the budget: talent paid by where, how widely and how long the ad runs, and language versions, which have to be decided before the script, not after the edit.
- If it will only run on social, or the people watching already know you, a TVC may be the wrong buy: three 15–20 second social spots are RM22,500 with us, and a corporate film starts at RM15,000.
Ask a studio what a TV commercial costs and the honest first answer is a question back: which bill do you mean?
There are two. One pays for making the commercial: the concept, the shoot, the edit and the finish. The other pays for putting it in front of people: airtime on TV, or media spend on digital. They're bought from different people and quoted on different pieces of paper, and a lot of confusion about TVC prices comes from mixing them up.
This page is about the first bill. It covers what we charge to produce a commercial, what the bottom and the top of that range look like, what moves a quote, what's easy to leave out of the budget, and when a commercial isn't the thing you should be buying.
Is the airtime included in the cost of a TVC?
No. A production quote pays for the commercial itself. Airtime is bought from the broadcaster or the platform, and it's priced on its own terms.
To show how separate the two are: Astro's TV rate card for 2026 (effective August 2026) sells airtime at "a base rate that starts from RM1,000 for a 30-sec TVC" (Astro TV Rate Card 2026, page 2 of the PDF). That's a starting rate, for one spot, on one network's card. What a campaign actually spends on airtime depends on where, when and how often the commercial runs, and none of it shows up on a production quote.
So if someone gives you a single number for "a TVC", ask which bill it covers. Everything below is the production bill.
How much does it cost to produce a TV commercial in Malaysia?
With us, between RM30,000 and RM120,000.
The band is wide because a commercial is priced by what the frame has to contain, not by how long it runs. The two ends look like this:
| What it looks like | |
|---|---|
| Bottom of the band, around RM30,000 | A tightly scoped single-day piece, with a real crew on it |
| Top of the band, towards RM120,000 | A multi-day shoot with a full crew, cast and a set |
Both ends are complete commercials. Whatever the size, the job includes campaign concept and script development, a full production crew with talent coordination, a professional edit and colour grade, sound design and mix, and exports in the formats for the placements you're buying. The full scope is on our TVC & commercial production page.
What makes one TVC cost more than another?
Five things move a commercial inside that band:
- Crew size. How many people the shoot needs on set, every day it runs.
- Shoot days. One day or several. Each extra day brings the crew, the equipment and the location back with it.
- Cast and talent. Whether there are people on screen, how many, and who they are.
- Sets and locations. Shooting somewhere that already exists, or building the place the commercial needs.
- The finishing. The colour grade, the sound design and mix, and a version for every placement you're buying.
If your brief is light on all five, it should sit near the bottom of the band. If it's heavy on several, it moves towards the top.
Why isn't a TVC priced by its length?
Running time isn't on that list. What the money pays for is the crew, the days, the cast, the set and the finish, and a 15-second spot needs those just as much as a 30-second one. Cutting the running time doesn't take a shoot day off the schedule.
What costs are easy to leave out of a TVC budget?
The talent's usage. Actors and presenters are often paid according to how their face gets used: which platforms, which regions, for how long. A face on a national campaign for a year is a different fee from the same face on one social post for a month. We've covered how that works in usage rights, talent and music licensing, in the section "Where the cost really sits", and it matters more for a commercial than for most video, because a commercial is made to run widely.
In our quotes, the cast is normally inside the RM30,000–120,000. The exception is KOLs and celebrities: their fees aren't in our number, because brands usually sign them directly. If your commercial has a known face in it, budget for that face separately.
Whichever way a quote handles it, ask before you sign what the talent is cleared for (platforms, regions, how long) and what it costs to extend if the commercial works and you want to keep it running.
Language versions. If the commercial has to run in more than one language, decide that before the script, not after the edit. One shoot can be planned to carry more than one language, but only if it's planned that way from the start.
Do I need a TVC, or would something cheaper do the job?
A commercial is the right spend when it's going in front of people who didn't ask to see it, with media money behind it. That media spend sets the standard: a weak second in a commercial doesn't just cost attention, it wastes the budget paying for that second of airtime. Plenty of video doesn't carry that weight.
- It will only run on social. A set of short spots made for the feed may serve you better than one commercial. Our Bite Size Commercial is three 15–20 second spots from a one-day shoot, cut for paid social in 9:16, 1:1 and 16:9, for RM22,500. It's on our social media video production page.
- The people watching already know you. A buyer reviewing your company, a tender panel, a new hire: they've already got a reason to watch, so you're not paying for the attention of strangers. That's a corporate film's job, and with us it starts at RM15,000 (corporate video production). If you're not sure which one you need, we've laid out corporate video, brand film, TVC and explainer side by side.
How long does it take to produce a TVC?
With us, between 21 and 90 days. We give you a date after the first meeting, once we know what the campaign has to contain.
How do you compare two TVC quotes?
Two quotes for "a 30-second TVC" can sit far apart and both be fair, because they may be describing different jobs. Put them on the same terms before you compare the totals:
- Production only, or airtime too? If one quote includes media and the other doesn't, they aren't the same purchase.
- How many shoot days, and how big a crew? Ask for the number of days and who will be on set.
- Who's on screen, and are their usage fees in the number? Ask what the talent is cleared for, and whether that fee sits inside the quote or on top of it.
- Sets and locations. Is the commercial shot somewhere that exists, or in a set built for it?
- What's in the finishing? Check for a colour grade, sound design and mix, and how many versions you get, for which placements. Ours includes all of these, with exports for the placements you're buying.
- Who develops the concept and writes the script? If one quote expects you to bring the script, the lower number may simply be less work. Ours includes concept and script development.
- How many languages? Ask whether each one is planned into the shoot or added afterwards.
When two quotes answer these the same way, what's left of the gap is mostly craft, and that's something you judge by watching work each studio has made, not by reading the quote.
If you're budgeting for one, tell us where the commercial will run, for how long, and whether there's talent in it. Those answers move the number more than the running time does.
Thinking about a project like this?
Tell us what it needs to do — we'll take it from there.
Frequently asked questions
- How much does it cost to produce a TV commercial in Malaysia?
- With us, between RM30,000 and RM120,000 for the production, not counting airtime. The bottom of that band is a tightly scoped single-day piece with a real crew on it; the top is a multi-day shoot with a full crew, cast and a set. Crew size, shoot days, cast and talent, sets and locations, and the finishing are what move it.
- Does a TVC production quote include the airtime?
- No. Production and airtime are two separate bills. The production quote pays for making the commercial; airtime is bought from the broadcaster or platform and priced on its own terms. Astro's 2026 TV rate card, for example, sells airtime from a base rate of RM1,000 for a 30-second TVC, and none of that appears on a production quote.
- Is a shorter commercial cheaper to produce?
- Not by itself. A commercial is priced by what the frame has to contain, not by how long it runs. A 15-second spot still needs the crew, the shoot day, the cast and the set; cutting the running time doesn't take any of those off the schedule.
Keep reading
- How Much Does an Animated Explainer Video Cost in Malaysia?With us, an animated explainer is either RM2,000 or from RM8,000. What decides which, what the RM8,000 includes, what pushes it higher, and how to put two explainer quotes side by side so they describe the same thing.
- Can We Get Photos From the Same Shoot Day as Our Video?Usually, yes — but the photos come out of the same hours as the film. Frame grabs, stills taken alongside the video, or a separate photo slot: what each gets you, where frame grabs stop being enough, and what to decide before the quote.
- How Many Videos Can You Get From One Shoot Day?A single day can genuinely feed months of content — or produce one film and a pile of unusable offcuts. The difference is decided before the day, and it's physical, not clever.