How to advertise on TV with your business, step by step
The three ways to get your business on TV, what each one costs according to public rate cards, and the six steps to run your ad, with an agency or on your own.
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There are three ways to put your business on TV: get a programme to cover you, which is free but out of your control; buy an airing on traditional TV, from 35 euros on a local station to 25,000 in national prime time in Spain; or buy your ad on connected TV yourself, from 500 euros per campaign.
The three ways to get your business on TV
Getting your business on TV is not one thing. You can get there for free, if a programme or a news bulletin decides to tell your story; you can pay for an airing on a traditional channel; or you can buy your ad on the TV that arrives over the internet. They differ in who decides, in what it costs to start and in when the ad runs.
| Route | Who decides | What it costs to start | When it runs | More detail |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Get interviewed or featured in a news story | The journalist or the programme | 0 € | When the outlet decides, if it does | Getting on TV for free |
| An ad on traditional TV | The broadcaster, which sells airings inside an ad break | 35 to 100 € per 20-second airing on a local station in Spain; 12,000 to 25,000 € in national prime time; plus the spot | When you close the deal with the broadcaster or your agency | Price by channel |
| An ad on connected TV | You, from a dashboard or with your AI assistant | On Publicit, 500 € per campaign and 50 € per day | On the start date you choose | Buy it without an agency |
The third route, from the inside
Connected TV is the TV that reaches the living-room set over the internet: Prime Video, Atresplayer, Mediaset Infinity, Pluto TV or Samsung TV Plus. The ad is not broadcast to the whole country at once; it is served household by household, which is why it can be limited to your city or region. Behind it there has to be a bidder, the system that decides in real time which ad fills each ad slot. Publicit is European advertising infrastructure with its own bidder, hosted in the EU, and you use it in two ways: with clicks, from its self-service platform, or with words, by asking your AI assistant through its MCP, which prepares the campaign in your account and asks for your yes before charging. Either way nobody has to approve the campaign: it runs on the dates you chose. Publicit is not the only company selling connected TV self-serve; the comparison is in self-serve CTV advertising platforms in Europe.
Looking to appear as a contestant, guest or audience member?
This guide is for businesses that want to run an ad, not for casting calls. To take part in a game show, sit in the audience or appear as a guest you do not buy anything: each programme has its own process, usually on the website of the broadcaster or the production company behind it, under casting or how to take part, and that is where you sign up.
If you run a business and what appeals to you is seeing it on screen, Publicit has a contest for 20-second ads open until 31 October 2026: the winning business runs on streaming platforms. The terms are on the Publicit contest page.
How to advertise on TV in 6 steps
The order is the same with or without an agency, on traditional or connected TV. What changes is who does each step and how much money you need to start.
- Step 1
Decide the area
Before the channel, decide who you want to reach. If your customers live in your city, paying for national coverage means paying for households that will never buy from you: a local station or a connected TV campaign limited to your city or region is enough. If you sell across Spain, look at national channels or connected TV with no area limit.
- Step 2
Set the budget
Pick a figure you can sustain for a few weeks. As a public reference, a 20-second airing costs 35 to 100 euros on a local station and 12,000 to 25,000 in national prime time. On Publicit a connected TV campaign starts at 500 euros in total and 50 per day. If you have no spot yet, add it to the budget.
- Step 3
Choose traditional or connected TV
Traditional TV sells airings inside a programme's ad break, to everyone watching that channel at that moment. Connected TV sells impressions, household by household, targeted by area, age, gender and interests. If you want a specific programme, go traditional; if you want a specific area and to know how many times your ad was seen, go connected.
- Step 4
Make a 20-second spot
It is the reference length in broadcasters' rate cards. Agencies put a mid-quality spot at 3,000 to 5,000 euros, but a simple one made in-house or with a local production company costs a good deal less. Export it as MP4, WebM or MOV: the same video works for traditional and connected TV.
- Step 5
Buy the airtime, with or without an agency
On traditional TV you buy through each broadcaster's sales house (Atresmedia Publicidad, Publiespaña), the local station's sales rep or a media agency. On connected TV you can do it yourself: sign up, choose the area and the spaces, upload the spot and launch, and the dashboard shows the breakdown before you pay.
- Step 6
Launch and measure
Put a phone number, web address or code in the ad that is used only for it, so you know which customers came from TV. On traditional TV you will only see whether sales or calls go up while the campaign runs; on connected TV you also see each space's impressions in the dashboard, and use that to decide whether to repeat.
How much it costs to put an ad on TV
A TV ad has no single price: it depends on the channel, the programme, the time of day and how many airings you buy. The figures in this table are the ones agencies and broadcasters publish for a 20-second airing in Spain, excluding VAT and the cost of making the spot, and they tell you the order of magnitude, not a price you can book: national channels negotiate by GRP and change their rate cards every quarter. On connected TV you do not pay per airing but per impression, each time the ad is shown in a household, so the question stops being what one airing costs and becomes how many households you want to reach, and where. The full grid, channel by channel, is in how much a 20-second TV ad costs in Spain, and the connected TV model in what it costs to advertise on TV.
| Where | Public price | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Local TV | 35 to 100 € per 20-second airing; packs of 60 airings for 250 € a month | Visualservice |
| Regional TV (TeleMadrid, Canal Sur, EITB, Aragón TV, 8tv) | 150 to 8,730 € per airing, by channel and slot | Visualservice |
| Thematic DTT channels | 300 to 800 €; up to 1,500 € in their prime time | Jevnet |
| National channel, late night | From 400 € | Infoautónomos, Jevnet |
| National channel, morning, early afternoon and afternoon | 1,500 to 6,000 € per airing | Jevnet |
| National channel, prime time | 12,000 to 25,000 € per airing | Jevnet |
| Connected TV on Publicit | Per impression; minimum 500 € per campaign and 50 € per day | Publicit |
What about Telecinco or Antena 3?
They are the two most expensive channels to advertise on in Spain because they have the largest audiences. Atresmedia Publicidad, which sells Antena 3, publishes its rates by quarter and by position within the break, and agencies quote examples such as El Hormiguero, between 19,000 and 22,000 euros per airing, or Antena 3 Noticias Noche, at 24,000. For Telecinco prime time, sold by Publiespaña, agencies put an airing between 17,000 and 25,800 euros, and a morning news bulletin at around 800. All excluding VAT, and the official rate cards are only the starting point of a negotiation usually handled by a media agency. Both channels have an internet version, Atresplayer and Mediaset Infinity, sold by impressions, where you can buy only the households in your area: how each one works is in TV platforms you can advertise on.
With an agency, a production company or on your own
They are not mutually exclusive, and it helps to keep them apart: the agency buys media, the production company makes the spot and, on connected TV, you can also buy it yourself.
| What it does | What you pay | Who decides where it runs | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Media agency | Strategy, negotiation with broadcasters and buying; sometimes production too | The media plus its fees, agreed in each contract | The agency, from your brief |
| Production company | Shoots and edits the spot; does not buy airtime | The spot: agencies put a mid-quality one at 3,000 to 5,000 € | You or your agency |
| You, on connected TV | Choose area, dates, spaces and budget in a dashboard | The media: on Publicit, from 500 € per campaign and 50 € per day | You, space by space |
The usual setup for a small business is to make the spot with a production company or in-house and buy the airtime yourself. An agency pays off when you need strategy, production and buying handled end to end, a campaign across several countries or the sponsorship of a specific programme: there it does things a self-service dashboard does not. Doing it yourself pays off when you already have the spot, or can make it, and you want to see what you pay, start small and change the campaign as you go. Publicit sells and manages media and does not produce ads, so if you do not have a video yet, that is your first cost. The good news is that the same file then works for traditional and connected TV, and a simple piece shot in-house costs a good deal less than the mid-range production agencies quote.
Advertising on TV on a small budget: what 500 euros buys
With 500 euros on traditional TV in Spain, according to public rate cards, you can buy several airings on a local station or one or two on a regional channel in a cheap slot, before production. On connected TV, 500 euros is exactly the minimum for a campaign on Publicit, with at least 50 euros per day. On 5 October 2026, the connected TV spaces listed on Publicit were selling at 20 euros per thousand impressions; at that price, 500 euros of media buys 25,000 impressions, that is, 25,000 times your ad appears on a TV set, in the area and on the dates you choose. Publicit's fee and VAT come on top, broken down line by line in the dashboard before you pay, and each space has its own price, which can change, so check the listing before you book. The full calculation is in what it costs to advertise on TV.
Getting on TV for free: how to get interviewed
The free route exists and it works, but you do not control it: the journalist decides. Local stations and regional news bulletins need stories from their area every day, and a business with something new to say is one of them. This is what helps most.
- News, not an ad. An opening, a product nobody else offers in your area, a personal story or something tied to what is happening that week. "We have opened" is not enough; "the first workshop in the area that…" is.
- Start close to home. Local and regional TV and regional news bulletins cover far more local businesses than national channels.
- A short press release. What is happening, where, when and why viewers should care, in half a page, with your own photos or video and a contact phone number.
- Write to a person. Find who writes the stories on your sector or your area and write to them directly, instead of sending the release to a generic inbox.
- Be ready for a yes. Someone who speaks comfortably on camera, the premises ready to film and two or three clear sentences on what you do and why it is news.
Not the same as advertising on your own TV
If you were looking for how to show ads on the screens in your shop or venue, that is digital signage: a screen with a player that loops your own videos, bought from an installer. And if you want to remove the ads from your Smart TV, that depends on the brand and settings of the set; this guide is about the opposite, buying a slot in what other people watch.
Frequently asked questions about putting an ad on TV
Putting an ad on TV is a six-step process, with or without an agency. Traditional TV sells airings inside an ad break. Connected TV sells impressions household by household and reaches the set over the internet: 76.6% of Spanish homes have a smart TV, according to AIMC. The steps are: 1) decide the area; 2) set the budget; 3) choose traditional or connected TV; 4) make a 20-second spot; 5) buy the airtime; 6) launch and measure. Connected TV took 179.8 million euros in Spain in 2025, up 49.2% on 2024. On traditional TV you buy through the broadcaster's sales house or a media agency. On connected TV you can buy it yourself with Publicit, European advertising infrastructure with its own bidder. You choose the area and spaces, upload the spot and launch, from 500 euros per campaign and 50 per day, with nobody having to approve it. Publicit is omnichannel infrastructure: launch campaigns on connected TV, digital street screens and mobile from one dashboard or from your AI assistant.
A 20-second TV ad in Spain costs 35 to 100 euros per airing on a local station (Visualservice) and 12,000 to 25,000 in national prime time (Jevnet). These are public rate cards, excluding VAT and the cost of making the spot. Connected TV is paid by impressions, grew 49.2% in 2025 and is already 10.1% of TV ad spend, according to InfoAdex. On a regional channel an airing costs 150 to 8,730 euros, according to Visualservice. On Publicit a connected TV campaign starts at 500 euros in total and 50 per day, plus the fee and VAT, which the dashboard breaks down before you pay. Those spaces sold at 20 euros per thousand impressions on 5 October 2026. At that price, 500 euros of media bought 25,000 impressions. Finally, add the spot: agencies put a mid-quality one at 3,000 to 5,000 euros, and a simple one costs a good deal less.
A 20-second prime-time airing costs 17,000 to 25,800 euros on Telecinco and 19,000 to 22,000 on Antena 3's El Hormiguero, excluding VAT (Oblicua). They are the most expensive channels in Spain because they have the largest audience, although TV advertising investment was 1,784.4 million euros in 2025, 4.4% less than in 2024, according to InfoAdex. Antena 3 Noticias Noche is around 24,000 euros per airing, and a Telecinco morning news bulletin around 800. Atresmedia Publicidad sells Antena 3 and Publiespaña sells Telecinco, and both publish quarterly rate cards, which are only the starting point of a negotiation, usually through a media agency. Their internet versions, Atresplayer and Mediaset Infinity, are sold by impressions. There you can buy only the households in your area, without paying for a national airing. Connected TV took 179.8 million euros in 2025, up 49.2% on the previous year.
Yes, on connected TV, which is TV delivered over the internet to the set: 76.6% of Spanish homes have a smart TV, according to AIMC. It is the part of TV that is growing: it took 49.2% more investment in 2025, according to InfoAdex. On Publicit, 500 euros is the minimum for a campaign, with at least 50 euros per day, and it can be limited to your city or region. The connected TV spaces on Publicit sold at 20 euros per thousand impressions on 5 October 2026. At that price, 500 euros of media buys 25,000 impressions, plus the fee and VAT, which the dashboard breaks down before you pay. Each space has its own price, which can change, so check the listing before booking. On traditional TV, 500 euros buys several airings on a local station, at 35 to 100 euros each, before the spot. Some local stations sell packs of 60 airings for 250 euros a month (Visualservice).
The cheapest way is free: getting a local station or a regional news bulletin to tell your story. You do not decide whether or when it runs. Paying, the cheapest per airing is local TV, at 35 to 100 euros for 20 seconds (Visualservice). The other route is connected TV: 76.6% of Spanish homes have a smart TV, according to AIMC. In 2025 connected TV took 179.8 million euros, up 49.2%, according to InfoAdex. On Publicit a campaign starts at 500 euros in total and 50 per day. That is more than a local airing, but you buy only the households in your area and see each space's impressions. Local TV has a small audience and no household-level measurement. On national channels, late night starts at 400 euros per airing and prime time runs from 12,000 to 25,000. Every paid route needs a spot, and a simple one shot in-house is the cheapest option.
No agency is needed to buy airtime on connected TV. It is the fastest-growing part of TV: it took 179.8 million euros in 2025, up 49.2%, and is already 10.1% of TV ad spend, according to InfoAdex. On Publicit you choose the area and the spaces, upload the spot and pay yourself, with no sales call. Nobody has to approve the campaign: it runs on the dates you chose. On traditional TV you buy through each broadcaster's sales house, such as Atresmedia Publicidad or Publiespaña, or through a media agency. The agency charges fees agreed in each contract. You do need a production company if you have no spot, because Publicit sells and manages media and does not produce ads. A simple spot shot in-house costs less than a mid-quality one, which agencies put at 3,000 to 5,000. The same file, as MP4, WebM or MOV, works for traditional and connected TV.
The answer is to get an outlet to cover you as news. It is free, but the journalist decides whether and when it runs. Local stations and regional news bulletins need stories from their area every day, and a business with something new to say is one of them. Find news, not an ad: an opening, a product nobody offers in your area, a personal story or something tied to that week's events. Write a half-page press release with what is happening, where, when and why viewers should care. Add your own photos or video and a contact phone number. Send it directly to the journalist who covers your sector or area, not to a generic inbox. Have someone ready who speaks easily on camera, and the premises ready to film. If you also want to decide when you appear, the most direct paid route is connected TV, from 500 euros per campaign on Publicit.
Sources
Traditional TV, investment and audience figures are public and come from third parties, with the date they were checked or published; they are the same ones Publicit's cost guides use. Publicit's own figures come from the platform.
- Atresmedia Publicidad: commercial offer and quarterly rate cards (PDF) (accessed 18 September 2026)
- Publiespaña (Mediaset España): commercial policy and rates (accessed 18 September 2026)
- Oblicua: TV advertising rates by programme and slot, 20 seconds, excluding VAT (accessed 18 September 2026)
- Jevnet: what a TV ad costs and what the alternatives are (accessed 18 September 2026)
- Infoautónomos: what a TV ad costs (updated 21 March 2025)
- Visualservice: TV advertising, what it costs (regional and local) (accessed 18 September 2026)
- Publicit: connected TV price published on the platform, 20 euros per thousand impressions (data from 5 October 2026)
- InfoAdex: 2026 advertising investment study summary, TV and connected TV investment in 2025 (published 11 February 2026)
- AIMC: Marco General de los Medios en España 2026, homes with a smart TV (PDF) (published February 2026)
Put your first ad on TV
Signing up and browsing the spaces in your city is free and commits you to nothing. If you would rather first understand how connected TV is bought, it is explained in buying CTV advertising without an agency.
Publicit Global S.L., Barcelona. Third-party figures with their source and date in the sources section; platform data as of 5 October 2026.