SAG-AFTRA and the studios add an unpublished sideletter covering vertical programs
Item 27 of the 2026 Theatrical-Television Memorandum of Agreement adds a sideletter to both the Codified Basic Agreement and the Television Agreement. It sets no vertical-specific minimums and obliges the studios to meet the union within 30 days of a request.
What this basis means: Regulatory filing, government body, court or industry association.
The 2026 Memorandum of Agreement between SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, dated 27 May 2026, addresses vertical drama at Item 27. It provides for an unpublished sideletter to be added to both the Codified Basic Agreement and the Television Agreement.
The sideletter sets no minimum terms specific to the format. It provides that if a member company produces vertical programs on other than an experimental basis, the studios shall meet the union within 30 calendar days of a request to discuss whether different minimum terms and conditions are appropriate. Where the parties do not agree, the union is not prohibited from publicly releasing suggestions for individual negotiation.
Such work is otherwise covered as an original new media production under Sideletter 21 to the Codified Basic Agreement and Sideletter H to the Television Agreement, with a carve-out for short-form work historically produced under those provisions regardless of aspect ratio.
The agreement supplies a contractual definition of the format: serialized, scripted dramatic programming produced in a compressed period for exhibition in a vertical 9:16 aspect ratio in new media on a mobile phone platform, typically running 60 to 90 minutes in aggregate and exhibited in installments of approximately three minutes or less per chapter.
The agreement was ratified on 4 June 2026 by 91.42% to 8.58% on a 19.25% turnout, and runs to 30 June 2030. It is separate from the Verticals Agreement, which SAG-AFTRA promulgated on its own in October 2025 for productions budgeted under $300,000.