$10,000 Streaming Use: Budget SAG commercial rates for U.S. producers
The authoritative source for SAG commercial rates is the official 2025 Commercials Contracts page, not the outdated PDFs that circulate on production message boards. Before you lock a budget, run every number through the official calculator, because streaming, Traditional Digital, and Cable use categories now carry different credit rules than they did under the prior contract.
Current SAG Commercial Rates: A Quick Snapshot
Producers building a first-pass budget need numbers they can trust before they open a spreadsheet. The table below reflects representative Year 1 (2025) figures for on-camera principal performers across the most common use categories, drawn from the official 2025 Commercials Contracts Summary.
Pro Tip: A 52-week streaming on-camera use cycle under the 2025 contract is set at $10,000, reflecting the increased value placed on streaming in these negotiations. Budget streaming placements as their own line item rather than folding them into a general “digital” bucket.
Cable and Class A figures often sit closer to historical 2022 levels because of caps and exceptions baked into those categories. Never assume a flat percentage bump applies evenly across every use type. The 4-week, 13-week, and 1-year cycle structure introduced in 2022 still governs how these periods are counted, so familiarize yourself with that model even if you’re new to union commercial work.
What the 2025 Contract Changed and Why It Matters for Your Budget
But those percentages compound.
Streaming saw the sharpest structural change, with use fees that outpace the flat percentage increases applied elsewhere in the contract. Pension and health contributions also rose alongside session fees, and that line item belongs in your budget spreadsheet, not as an afterthought calculated at invoice time.
What this means for your planning process:
Build separate budget lines for streaming versus Traditional Digital, since their growth curves diverge.
Recalculate pension and health contributions using the current percentage, not last year’s figure.
Never copy a 2024 budget template forward without checking the current rate sheet first.
Pro Tip: Producers who reuse last year’s budget spreadsheet without updating the base rate are the ones who end up shorting performers on P&H contributions. Rebuild your calculation from the current sheet every contract year, not just when rates obviously jump.
How to Calculate Session Fees, Use Fees, and Holding Credits
A session fee pays for the performer’s time on set. A holding fee compensates a performer for being unavailable to other jobs during an exclusivity period. A use fee is what you pay to actually air the commercial for a given cycle. These are three different payments, and conflating them is the fastest way to underpay a principal performer.
Credit rules complicate things further. Holding fees generally cannot be credited against Traditional Digital use, or Traditional Digital with paid YouTube placement, unless you’ve also purchased linear or streaming use. Skip that detail and you’ll owe additional payments after the campaign is already live.
Here’s a simplified worked example using representative 2025 figures:
Book a principal performer for a streaming-only campaign; pay the session fee at booking.
Purchase the 13-week streaming use cycle at the mid-tier rate rather than the full 1-year rate.
If the client wants to extend to a full year mid-campaign, pay the difference between the 13-week and 1-year rates before the 13-week cycle expires.
Confirm no holding fee credit applies, since this is a Traditional Digital plus streaming mix, not a linear buy.
Upgrading a use cycle requires paying the rate difference and getting that payment dated and mailed before the shorter cycle’s last day. Miss that window and the upgrade can be invalidated, which forces you back to square one on negotiating extended use.
Payment Timing and Producer Obligations
Producers who hire SAG-AFTRA principal performers take on specific deadlines, and missing them creates disputes that can escalate into contract violations. Session fee payments are generally due within a defined number of business days after the work date, a timing rule spelled out in the 2025 Commercials Contracts documentation.
Beyond the core session and use fees, plan for these obligations:
Standard allowances (wardrobe, travel, meal penalties) rise with the same staged percentages as session fees.
Cover-up and nudity protections must be arranged before the performer arrives on set, not negotiated in the moment.
Hair and makeup contact time typically needs to be scheduled and communicated ahead of the call time, per standard contract language.
Treat these as fixed costs in your budget, not variables you’ll sort out during production.
AI, Digital Replicas, and What Producers Must Do Before Shooting
If your commercial plan involves generating a performance using a digital replica of a performer, the 2025 contract requires informed consent obtained in advance, with a reasonably specific description of the intended use. A vague “we might use this for other projects later” clause will not satisfy that requirement.
Using a digital replica to generate a performance triggers an additional payment of 1.5 times the session fee, on top of any other fees already owed. That protection exists partly to keep union performers competitive against synthetic alternatives, so budget for it rather than treating AI workflows as a cost-saving shortcut. Document the consent language directly in your production files, alongside the signed deal memo, so there’s a clear paper trail if the usage is ever questioned later. If your team is exploring AI-assisted ad production more broadly, Palmador’s overview of digital ad trends covers how AI tools are reshaping campaign planning outside the union context too.
Where to Find Official Rate Sheets and the SAG-AFTRA Calculator
Skip the recycled PDFs floating around production forums. Go straight to these sources:
Commercials Contract Summary PDF for use-fee tables and credit rules.
The Commercial Payment Calculator for computing exact amounts owed.
Save PDF copies alongside your project files every time you start a new job. Rate sheets get updated, and having the version you budgeted against on hand saves you from arguing about which number was correct months later.
Puritano Media Group: Production and SAG-Compliance Support
Calculating rates correctly is only half the job. Somebody still has to book the talent, file the right SAG-AFTRA paperwork, run the shoot, and make sure every use-fee cycle lines up with what the client actually wants to air. That’s the part where a lot of in-house teams get stuck, and it’s exactly where Puritano steps in as a working production partner rather than just a camera crew for hire.
A production company can handle budgeting, contract paperwork, casting coordination, and on-set logistics for regional and national commercial shoots. If you’re weighing whether to staff a SAG-compliant shoot internally or bring in a team that already knows the current rate structure cold, our SAG commercial rates budgeting guide walks through the same numbers in more production-specific detail, and our breakdown of what a 30-second TV commercial actually costs fills in the production-side line items that sit alongside performer pay. Browse our music video and commercial portfolio to see the kind of work we’ve produced under union contracts, then reach out to request a quote for your next SAG commercial project.
FAQ
What are the current SAG-AFTRA commercial rates?
Current rates reflect a 5% increase effective April 1, 2025, over prior figures, with representative examples including a $10,000 streaming 1-year on-camera use fee; exact session and use fees depend on category and are best confirmed through the official rate sheet.
What are the current SAG rates overall?
SAG-AFTRA commercial rates vary by use category (Traditional Digital, Streaming, Cable, Class A) and by cycle length (4-week, 13-week, 1-year), which is why the Commercial Payment Calculator exists instead of a single universal number.
How much does a SAG commercial fitting fee cost?
Fitting fees are separate from session fees and are typically indexed to the same staged percentage increases as other contract payments; check the current rate sheet for the exact figure tied to your production date, since it changes with each contract year.
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