Article
Deal memos and getting paid on scripted TV
The short answer. Under the Pact and Bectu scripted TV agreement you should get a deal memo with your main terms, and a contract of engagement within six weeks of starting or a quarter of the way through the job, whichever comes first. If you start work after receiving the deal memo, you are taken to have accepted it unless you object in writing within 48 hours. On PAYE your basic pay comes normally a week in arrears, with overtime and other extras within 14 days of your claim. On the other route, you invoice and are paid on the next payroll.
The APA terms for commercials have nothing like this: they deal with your invoice and a seven day payment term. Scripted TV runs on documents: a deal memo first, then a contract, then a payroll. The agreement says what each one should do and when it should arrive.
What follows is from the Pact and Bectu agreement for scripted TV, effective 1 January 2023. The film terms say much less, covered below.
What is a deal memo?
The document that sets out the key terms of your engagement. The agreement ties it to the legal requirement for employers to give employees and workers their main conditions of employment when they start work. You should also be told the provisional working schedule in the deal memo, before you are contracted.
What should it say?
The agreement leaves a number of things for the deal memo to fix, clause by clause:
- Your contracted hours, the hours you work before overtime is due. For the six departments on the additional contracted hour, the agreement even shows the layout: 11 total contracted hours, ten shooting hours at a basic daily rate of £250, the additional hour at the hourly rate of £25, and a total daily rate of £275.
- That non-shooting work is on a standard day, ten hours and an hour's lunch.
- The budget band of the production. The budget bands article explains what it changes.
- Your production base, if it is not the production office.
- Which travel option applies, the 30 mile radius or the M25, for the whole engagement. The travel article has both.
- Per diems for resident and overseas locations, which the producer agrees.
- The provisional working schedule.
- Who you raise problems with: the head of department, line producer, head of production or production executive named in it.
What if you do not agree with it?
You have 48 hours. If you start work after the deal memo has been issued, you are taken to have accepted its terms, unless you have sent written objections to the producer's nominated representative within 48 hours of receiving it. The producer then either makes a counter-offer or tells you no changes will be made. If you carry on working after that, you have accepted the counter-offer, if there was one, or the original terms.
One protection sits the other way: you are not taken to have accepted terms if you have not received a deal memo at all.
When do you get a contract?
The producer issues a contract of engagement no more than a quarter of the way through the engagement, or within six weeks of the start, whichever is shorter. Later than that only in exceptional circumstances. On a twelve week engagement that means within three weeks; on a thirty week one, within six.
The contract's financial terms can be no less favourable than the deal memo and the agreement. The contract and the producer's published company policies may cover the same ground as the agreement, and where they do they take precedence, provided they do not conflict with the agreement or undermine it.
When are you paid?
Where you are hired for a set number of days, the first pay week starts on your first day, or on a day the producer nominates. Subject to your signing a contract of engagement where one has been issued, the agreement sets out two routes:
- PAYE. On weekly and daily engagements, the basic pay for the week or the day is paid promptly, normally one week in arrears. Overtime and other variable payments follow within 14 days of the producer receiving valid and undisputed written evidence of what you are claiming. If the pay cycle is anything other than a week in arrears, the producer should tell you promptly.
- Schedule D or a personal service company. You are paid on the next processed payroll after the producer receives a valid and undisputed invoice from you or your company.
For overtime and extras on PAYE, and for invoices on the other route, the clock runs from something you send: the written evidence of your claim, or the invoice. This article does not cover employment status or tax, and the agreement does not decide which route applies to you.
Commercials work differently. The APA terms say crew the production contracts with directly are paid within seven days of the invoice. The commercials and long form article sets the two side by side.
What about notice and cancellation?
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. Dailies have their own rule, a 1pm deadline the day before: the cancelled dailies article has it.
What if something goes wrong?
The agreement has its own dispute procedure, and it has to be started within seven days of the cause arising. First, raise it informally with the head of department, line producer, head of production or production executive named in your deal memo. If that fails, it goes to a senior representative of the producer and the appropriate full time Bectu official. If it is still unresolved within a reasonable period, and in any event within a week, it goes to an independent mediator chosen jointly by Pact and Bectu, sitting with two representatives from each side. The mediator's decision is final and binding, and there is no stoppage of work or lock-out until the procedure is exhausted.
What about film?
The major motion picture terms say nothing about deal memos, contracts of engagement or when you are paid. For late cancellation they point crew other than dailies to their contract. They have their own complaints and disputes procedure: raise it informally first, then invoke the procedure within seven days. There are 72 hours to settle it where it arose, then an industry panel, two Bectu representatives, one from the employer and a Pact nominee, meeting within a week of a written request. If the panel is not unanimous, either side can refer it to ACAS for conciliation. The terms count those 24 and 72 hour periods without weekends and bank holidays.
What does TimeMachine do?
Since version 2026.11 the app has a long form mode, in beta, built from these agreements. Setting up a job asks for the facts your deal memo holds: the agreement, which is fixed for the life of the job; the budget band on scripted TV; the principal photography start date, which fixes the edition of the agreement; the production base, which decides the bank holidays; the day your week starts, which locks once a week has been invoiced; your role and the terms your deal is on, standard, the additional contracted hour or rigging electrician; and your daily or weekly rate. The £250 the rate starts at is the agreement's own example figure, there to be changed.
Long form invoices are built from your weeks and take the next number in the same sequence as your commercials invoices. The first page groups the charges by kind, the second lists the days under their weeks. Each week shows whether it is unbilled, in a draft, sent or paid. A sent invoice is frozen, and if you change a day in a week already invoiced, you can resend it under the same number.
The app works in gross figures. It does not model deductions, pension or holiday pay, and never works out net pay. It does not hold the deal memo or contract, track the 48 hour window or the contract deadline, or know your payroll dates, including the 14 day window for overtime. Per diems are not yet part of a long form job.
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.
Is the scripted TV agreement still in force?
The agreement took effect on 1 January 2023 for a minimum of three years, to 1 January 2026. After that date 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. Your deal memo 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.