The WGA prices vertical scripts by budget per minute

What was announced or recorded

The Writers Guild of America does not have a single "short-form" clause; it has a page that names the format directly. The Guild's page on Verticals, Microdramas, and Low-Budget Streaming Projects states that writing on these projects is covered under the Minimum Basic Agreement (MBA) as "original new media," a category the Guild's Digital/New Media page defines as "all writing of audio-visual production intended for the Internet, mobile devices, evolving technological devices, or any other platform thought of as 'new media' by the industry as of the start of the 2008 MBA." Both pages are living documents describing current MBA terms as retrieved on 16 September 2026, not a dated announcement.

What the documents establish

The verticals page sets out a compensation architecture rather than a flat rate. Initial writer compensation is negotiable, but the producer must additionally fund pension, health and paid parental leave contributions at "Health (16.25%), Pension (11.25%), and Paid Parental Leave (0.25%)" on top of the agreed fee. That payment buys "26 weeks of use on any consumer pay platform (e.g. SVOD) and all use on a free to consumer platform (e.g. AVOD)" with no separate residual due in that window. The central mechanism is a per-minute budget line: projects budgeted below $25,000 per minute owe no further residuals once the 26-week SVOD period ends, while projects above owe "1.2% of accountable receipts for use on an SVOD platform after 26 weeks." The Digital/New Media page adds the procedural half: a signatory company, filed employment or purchase agreements, ongoing pension and health contributions, and prompt credit determination after photography.

Announced versus delivered

What the pages deliver is a classification and a price line, not a ruling on any specific show; whether a vertical series sits above or below the $25,000-per-minute line is a fact only its own budget can establish, and the Guild does not publish which shows are signed under this template. The pages point past themselves, to a template "Original New Media" agreement and a Schedule of Minimums, for the numbers a writer would actually negotiate from, so what is quoted here is a map rather than any single deal's full text.

What to watch

Editorially, the number worth tracking is where vertical-drama budgets fall against that threshold: a five-minute episode budgeted well under $125,000 sits inside the no-residuals band once its initial 26 weeks have run, a different bargain for a writer than a drama budgeted above the line. Whether the Guild revises that threshold as vertical budgets rise is the fact that would confirm or weaken this reading.

• Is the production company a WGA signatory, and has an employment or purchase agreement been filed with the Guild?
• What is the project's budget per minute, and does it sit above or below the residuals threshold?
• Does the initial fee already anticipate the pension, health and paid-parental-leave add-ons, or are they negotiated separately?

A per-minute budget line is a direct way to price a format defined by short running times, giving a writer a concrete number to check a contract against rather than a genre label to argue over.