Hollywood’s New Actor Contract Changes Streaming Pay and AI Rules
SAG-AFTRA members have ratified a new four-year agreement covering television, theatrical films and streaming production. The deal raises minimum wages, changes several streaming-residual formulas and adds protections involving digital replicas, synthetic performers and certain commercial AI-training licenses.
The agreement was ratified June 4, 2026, by 91.42% of voting members, with 8.58% opposed. The return rate among eligible members was 19.25%. Its term runs from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2030, although individual provisions have different effective dates.
The contract in numbers
Minimum wages increase 3% on July 1 of each contract year. Compounded across the four-year term, the increase is 12.55%. The agreement covers performers working under the union’s television, theatrical and streaming contracts.
For performers, the first practical change is the 3% minimum-wage increase beginning July 1, 2026. Additional increases take effect each July 1 through 2029. Other provisions depend on the production’s budget, type, service, exhibition date or contract date.
Streaming residuals will change, but eligibility matters
The agreement raises the ceilings used to calculate residuals for new high-budget subscription-video-on-demand programs by 5.1% over three years. It also provides an average 5% increase for residuals involving television programs, theatrical pictures later exhibited on subscription streaming services and high-budget streaming programs shown on a second or subsequent domestic SVOD service.
The latter increase can apply retroactively to productions that began on or after July 1, 2020, when a new qualifying license is entered. The agreement also increases the factor for the highest foreign-subscriber tier by 5.6% effective July 1, 2026. SAG-AFTRA’s guidance identifies services currently in that tier as including Netflix, Amazon and Disney+.
A separate change affects the Success Bonus Distribution Fund. For qualifying high-budget SVOD pictures, miniseries and new seasons beginning exhibition on their initial service on or after July 1, 2027, the fund’s share rises from 25% to 35% of applicable residuals and contributions when the program reaches the contract’s success metric: viewership equal to at least 20% of domestic subscribers during the first 90 days of exhibition.
That increase will not apply automatically to every streaming title. Budget, program type, service, exhibition date and measured audience performance all matter.
What the AI provisions actually require
The agreement distinguishes between a digital replica of an identifiable performer and a “synthetic.” Under the contract, a synthetic is a digital asset created through generative artificial intelligence for a role in which no natural performer has been hired, intended to create the clear impression of a natural performer but not recognizable as a particular individual and not voiced by a natural person.
Producers may not use a synthetic without first notifying SAG-AFTRA and bargaining under a defined schedule. The agreement establishes a principle favoring human performances and says producers do not intend to use a synthetic in a human role that otherwise would be performed by a human unless the synthetic brings “significant additional value” to the production. A digital replica may count as the relevant human performance for that comparison.
This is not a blanket ban on AI. Producers can use synthetics if they follow the contract’s notice, bargaining and other requirements. SAG-AFTRA may arbitrate alleged violations and seek damages that are not necessarily limited to what a natural performer would have been paid.
The agreement also adds or strengthens protections for digital replicas. The specified provisions address matters including consent and notice, biometric information, foreign-language dubbing, the use of minors’ replicas in nude or simulated-sex material, secure maintenance of replica assets and continued protection if ownership of a production changes.
AI-training obligations are narrower than a general ban
When a producer grants a paid license to a non-affiliated third party to use covered performances in photography or soundtrack material for training a public-facing, commercially available generative-AI system, the producer must give written notice to SAG-AFTRA.
Upon the union’s request, and subject to appropriate confidentiality agreements, the producer must meet to discuss the license, including remuneration if any. The provision does not establish a rule covering every form of AI training, every use of a performer’s work or an automatic payment for every licensed performance.
Vertical video remains unresolved
Actors working in vertical or micro-drama productions should not assume that the new agreement provides the same compensation structure as high-budget streaming productions.
Vertical programs remain covered under the Made for New Media Sideletter when an AMPTP member company produces them. That sideletter allows negotiable rates and does not include all of the normal terms and conditions that apply to programs outside the high-budget SVOD or high-budget AVOD categories, although it includes protections involving minors, nudity, simulated sex and artificial intelligence.
If an AMPTP member company begins producing vertical programs beyond an experimental basis, SAG-AFTRA may request bargaining over dedicated terms. The new agreement does not itself establish a full negotiated framework for that work.
What to watch next
The changes beginning July 1, 2026, include the contract term, the first 3% minimum-wage increase and specified residual and AI provisions whose effective-date rules point to that date. Later milestones include the 35% Success Bonus Distribution Fund share for qualifying projects beginning July 1, 2027, additional wage increases each July through 2029 and the continued implementation of residual-reporting rules.
The main enforcement questions will involve whether productions qualify for the new residual formulas, whether producers follow notice-and-bargaining requirements for synthetics and digital replicas, and how commercial AI-training licenses are handled. For workers in vertical video, the key question is whether AMPTP companies expand production enough to trigger dedicated bargaining.
In practical terms, covered performers have higher minimums now, but larger streaming payments remain conditional. AI use is regulated through bargaining and contractual standards rather than prohibited outright, and vertical-video workers still lack a complete AMPTP-wide compensation framework.
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