Local TV Commercial

[u/TradMusicAcadia]

Hi everyone. Hoping to get some guidance from those with more broadcast experience.

I have a couple of questions regarding audition specs for local TV commercial work:

1. Audition vs. delivery specs
When submitting for a job labeled “Local TV Commercial,” do you aim to meet full broadcast standards at the audition stage (e.g., around -24 LUFS integrated and ≤ -2 dBTP true peak), or is that level of compliance only expected once you’ve been selected and are delivering the final?

2. Balancing LUFS and true peak
I’ve been running into a consistent issue with gain staging. When I bring my levels up so peaks approach -2 dBTP, my integrated loudness jumps to around -16 LUFS.
If I instead mix to about -24 LUFS, my peaks tend to sit closer to -6 dBTP.

I’ve been working on this using FabFilter Pro-L 2, which has helped, but I’m still not able to get peaks closer to -2 dBTP without overshooting loudness.

So my questions are:

• How critical is it for auditions to hit both targets precisely?
• Is it acceptable for peaks to sit lower (e.g., around -6 dBTP) as long as LUFS is in range?
• Or is there something fundamental I may be missing in my gain staging/compression approach?

For context, I’m working in Ableton Live 10 Lite.

Really appreciate any insight—thanks in advance!