Following discussions with Directors UK, ITV has agreed some improvements to directors’ terms and conditions for working on continuing dramas, including expenses and the addition of new retainer fees.
Retainer fee
Directors are often required to attend two days of “director meetings” that start ten working days before the start of formal “prep” and are paid at a rate of 1/5th of the weekly rate. The remaining eight days are unpaid and not formally worked, though some unpaid tasks are usually completed in this time. Directors are generally unable to find other employment during this period. ITV has recognised the unfairness of this and will now pay a “first block retainer fee” of £1,000, exclusive of the director meetings payments.
Expenses
ITV has agreed to double the per-diem rate to cover the cost of accommodation and subsistence to £60 a day (£300 a week). This is a welcome improvement on the £30 per diem that has been in place since 2001, and applies to directors who live beyond commuting distance of the production base.
Pay
Following a 3% annual uplift, from 1 June 2024 the current rates of pay for directors working a five day week on ITV continuing dramas are as follows:
• Coronation Street: £1,951.25 per week + holiday pay (or £2,186.75 inclusive of holiday pay)
• Emmerdale: £1,825.19 per week + holiday pay (£2,045.49 inclusive of holiday pay)
Note: on Emmerdale, different lengths of block are paid differently. Find out more about this and about historic rates of pay here.
On the new deals struck for ITV continuing drama directors, our Chief Executive Andy Harrower said:
“We welcome the positive engagement we’ve had with ITV. As part of this, we raised our concerns about how directors’ pay has fallen short of recent cost-of-living increases. In addition to the 3% annual uplift offered by ITV, we’re pleased to have secured a further £1,000-per block retainer fee and the planned doubling of expense per-diems, which represents a substantial improvement.”
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