Article
Cancelled as a daily on scripted TV or film: what you are owed
The short answer. If you are a confirmed daily and the production cancels after the deadline, you are owed your full daily rate. Before the deadline, nothing is owed. On scripted TV the deadline is 1pm on the working day before your call. On film it is 3pm on the working day before, or 3am on the working night before if you were booked for a night. A pencil is not a booking, and on scripted TV a daily not confirmed by 1pm the day before can take other work.
On a commercial, a cancellation is priced on a sliding scale by how many days' notice you were given. Long form has no scale. There is a single deadline the day before, and it is all or nothing either side of it.
What follows is from the Pact and Bectu agreement for scripted TV, effective 1 January 2023, and the Pact and Bectu terms for major motion pictures, as amended on 5 April 2021.
Who does this cover?
Dailies who have been confirmed, rather than merely pencilled. Both agreements draw that line in the same words.
Scripted TV adds the other side of it: a daily hire not confirmed by 1pm the day before the job starts is deemed not hired, and can accept other work. The film terms have no equivalent sentence.
Crew on longer engagements are covered differently, below.
What is the deadline?
| Agreement | Cancel by | After that |
|---|---|---|
| Scripted TV | 1pm, the working day before the call | Full daily rate |
| Film, days | 3pm, the working day before the call | Full daily rate |
| Film, nights | 3am, the working night before the call | Full daily rate |
Notice can be given by any means of recorded communication, which both agreements say includes text, email and WhatsApp. On scripted TV, and for days on film, the notice comes from the producer or the head of department. The film clause for nights mentions only the producer.
What is owed after the deadline?
The full daily rate. On scripted TV the agreement says the full applicable daily rate, and it defines the daily rate as the ten plus one rate, or ten plus one plus one for the six departments contracted for the additional contracted hour. On a basic daily rate of £300, a late cancellation is owed £300, or £330 in one of those departments.
On film, it is the full daily rate.
Neither agreement mentions anything beyond the daily rate for a cancelled day, such as overtime that would have been worked. Neither offers a part payment for notice given close to the deadline: it is the full rate or nothing.
On film, where a daily's role needs box rental, a pro rata box rental fee is to be agreed, equivalent to the weekly box rental that would be paid on a weekly engagement. The cancellation clauses do not say whether box rental is owed for a cancelled day.
What do the agreements leave open?
- Neither defines "the working day preceding" the call. For a call the day after a weekend or a bank holiday, the documents do not say which day that is.
- The film terms do not define "the working night preceding" a night call, so the exact 3am the deadline falls on is not stated.
- Neither says how the rule applies when some of several confirmed daily bookings are cancelled. Each daily's call has its own deadline, but that is as far as the text goes.
What about crew on longer engagements?
On scripted TV, an engagement of a week or more can start on any day of the week, and can be ended by one week's notice, or without notice in line with the contract of engagement. Payment in lieu of notice is for one week or the rest of the contract, whichever is less.
On film, the terms say crew other than dailies should look to their contract for late cancellation.
How is this different from commercials?
The APA terms use a sliding scale: nothing with seven or more days' notice, 50% with six to four days, 75% with three to two, and 100% the day before. All seven days of the week count, the day notice is given counts and the shoot day does not, and on engagements longer than three days each day is worked out separately. The cancellation article has the detail.
What does TimeMachine do?
Since version 2026.11 the app has a long form mode, in beta, built from these agreements. It does not yet handle a cancelled daily. There is no cancelled day type in long form mode, and the app's cancellation calculator is built on the APA's sliding scale, not on these deadlines. If a confirmed day is cancelled late, the daily rate you are owed for it will not be in the app's figures.
It is a beta because a few readings of the agreements are still unconfirmed. The app flags them wherever they affect your money, so check your figures against your payslip, and send anything that looks wrong to the feedback address below. Nothing about the beta appears on your invoices or timesheets.
Are these agreements still current?
The scripted TV agreement took effect on 1 January 2023 for a minimum of three years, to 1 January 2026, after which either side can end it on six months' written notice. We have not been able to confirm its status since 1 January 2026, and TimeMachine's scripted TV mode is built on the 2023 agreement. The film terms are as amended on 5 April 2021, and we have not been able to confirm whether they have been amended since. Your deal memo or contract is the document that says which terms your production is using.
TimeMachine is an independent tool for UK film and television crew. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the Advertising Producers Association (APA), Pact or Bectu. It references the publicly available APA Recommended Crew Terms and the Pact and Bectu agreements as a reference only. TimeMachine's long form mode is in beta. This article is general information, not legal or financial advice.