dataset
What it costs to start on each UK media channel
A short application: five questions, no card. Approved accounts get the whole loop in their own sandbox, up to a monthly cap. Live spend is open to paid design partners.
- channels
- 7
- seller figures
- 12
- sources
- 10
- last checked
- 24 September 2026
the table
Each channel’s market minimum sits beside our plan floor
The market minimum is what a seller says it will accept. The plan floor is the smallest line AdBuyMCP’s planner will fund on that channel. Read them separately: a seller can take less than our floor, and our floor can sit under what a seller will book.
| Channel | Seller | Market minimum | Source | AdBuyMCP plan floor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CTV & streaming TVSee the cost page | Universal Ads (Channel 4, ITV and Sky inventory) | £0 ("start with any budget") | Universal Ads UKSeller's own page, checked 24 September 2026 | £140 per weekProduct fact |
| Podcast & digital audioSee the cost page | Spotify Ad Studio | £250 a campaign | Spotify Ads, small business advertising (UK)Rate card, checked 24 September 2026 | £250 per lineProduct fact |
| Spotify Ad Studio, help centre | About $250 lifetime in local currency, and $15 a day (USD) | Spotify Ads help centre, setting your budget (UK)Rate card, checked 24 September 2026 | ||
| Acast self-serve | $250, £250 or €250 | Acast, self-serve podcast advertising for local businesses (UK)Seller's own page, 7 June 2023, checked 24 September 2026 | ||
| Addressable & linear TVSee the cost page | Sky AdSmart | From £3,000 ("from as little as £3k"), paid only for ads watched at least 75% through | AdSmart from Sky, affordable and accountableSeller's own page, checked 24 September 2026 | £1,000 per lineProduct fact |
| Universal Ads (Channel 4, ITV and Sky inventory) | £0 | Universal Ads UKSeller's own page, checked 24 September 2026 | ||
| CinemaSee the cost page | Digital Cinema Media (DCM) | None published; booked by admissions volume | Digital Cinema Media, rate cardRate card, checked 24 September 2026 | £500 per weekProduct fact |
| Digital out-of-homeSee the cost page | Blindspot, London, pay per play | No minimum; scheduled by the hour | Blindspot, digital billboards in LondonSeller's own page, updated 27 July 2026, checked 24 September 2026 | £100 per lineProduct fact |
| Global AdPower (buses, BT Street Hubs, London Underground) | None published; next-day go-live | Global AdPower, outdoor advertisingSeller's own page, checked 24 September 2026 | ||
| Paid searchSee the cost page | Google Ads | None; a month's spend is capped at 30.4 times the daily budget | Google Ads help, average daily budgets (UK)Seller's own page, checked 24 September 2026 | £100 per lineProduct fact |
| Paid socialSee the cost page | TikTok, campaign | $50 daily or lifetime (USD) | TikTok Ads help centre, budgetRate card, updated July 2026, checked 24 September 2026 | £250 per lineProduct fact |
| TikTok, ad group | $20 a day; a lifetime budget of $20 times the days it runs (USD) | TikTok Ads help centre, budgetRate card, updated July 2026, checked 24 September 2026 |
One row per seller figure, with the source, its type, its date and the plan floor on every row.
Licence: CC BY 4.0. Credit AdBuyMCP and link to this page. The licence covers AdBuyMCP's compilation, and each market minimum remains the seller's own figure, with its source cited on its row.
method
Every figure has a source you can check
The market minimum
Desk research. Each figure was read on the seller’s own page, rate card or help centre and checked on 24 September 2026. Figures seen only in search snippets, or not found on a page we could fetch, are left out, which is why some sellers say none is published.
The plan floor
Product fact: the smallest amount AdBuyMCP's planner will put on one line of this channel. A line under it is dropped and its budget redistributed. £2,000 a month funds two or three channels properly. From about £12,500 a month, an awareness or consideration plan funds all seven, and a performance plan needs more.
Citing this table
Quote the seller’s figure with the seller’s source, and this page for the comparison: “AdBuyMCP, UK media minimums by channel, checked 24 September 2026, adbuymcp.com/data/uk-media-minimums”.
Each channel’s cost page carries these figures with typical prices, a realistic first budget and the costs that are neither media nor our fee. Start at what UK media costs.
next step
Plan against these floors with your own audience.
Bring a real brief to a 45-minute session and we’ll plan it live. You describe one audience and watch it turn into native targeting on 7 channels, with the fidelity score and the lawful-basis manifest on screen. It runs in the deterministic sandbox, so it needs no vendor credentials and no card.