MEAA and TVC rates explained: how screen pay is actually set

Screen rates are not a single government number. Depending on the engagement, the relevant number may come from an award, an adopted agreement or contract, a negotiated deal, or source-dated industry guidance. Those sources do not have the same legal status. This guide explains the shape without presenting a remembered figure as a current entitlement.

Where the rates come from

Two reference points do most of the work in Australian screen and commercial production.

• ·The MEAA TV Commercial Standard Contract 2024 template. MEAA publishes this as an Equity screen template. Its terms matter when they are adopted into the engagement; the mere existence of the template does not set every performer's fee.
• ·The CGA September 2024 recommended guideline. The Casting Guild of Australia publishes recommended percentages for specified additional media, cutdowns and international territories. It is industry guidance, not legislation, an award or proof of the negotiated contract.

Base fee and usage are two different things

A performance fee and the rights to use the resulting material are often negotiated separately, but the contract controls what the entered fee already includes.

• ·The performance fee records the agreed amount for the work and any primary rights expressly included in that deal.
• ·Additional usage may add money for media, territory, edits or licence scope outside that agreed fee. Do not add a recommendation again when the entered fee already includes it.

Overtime, allowances and penalties depend on the contract or applicable industrial instrument. A nearby screen-industry benchmark is not enough to calculate a TVC entitlement automatically.

Why you price off the current instrument

Templates, agreements, awards and recommendations can change on different dates. If you rely on a figure, retrieve the applicable source and contract terms at the time you quote. A source-dated CGA recommendation does not prove the current negotiated result, and a template does not prove it was adopted.

How Screenpay handles it

Screenpay does not determine the negotiated or award rate. You enter contract-confirmed fee, overtime and adjustment amounts. It can apply a fixed, source-dated CGA additional-media recommendation to the entered performance fee when you select it. CGA ranges and international-territory values remain manual because they require a negotiated percentage or a separate Australian-buyout base. Tax and super still follow their independently confirmed treatment. For the full walk-through, see how to prepare cast and crew payments.

Guide reviewed 7 August 2026; that is not a declaration that an industry rate is current. Sources: MEAA resource listing; CGA Recommended Guideline, 24 September 2024. Confirm the governing contract and current source with the relevant parties. See the other guides.