Answer: Residuals are paid at various times depending upon what the original production was made for and where it airs. Usually, residuals are sent to the actor within 60 days of the exhibition, but could be longer than that, in particular for supplementary markets.
Your residuals, payments for repeat performances and new uses of your work, are an ongoing benefit of being a union actor (almost universally, there are no residuals for non-union work). When those residuals are paid is a function of the category of work you did originally, and where and when the repeat exhibitions or other exploitation occurs.
The Screen Actors’ Guild (SAG), and the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists (AFTRA), are usually the clearinghouses for some 2 million checks a year coming from thousands of producers, and sent on to tens of thousands of actors.
Here are the different times and conditions under which royalties are supposed to be sent:
If you’ve done work that is made for television, such as episodic television, movies of the week, cartoons and so on, and then that work is repeated on network prime time, your residuals are to be sent within 30 days of the air date of the repeat.
If that made for television work is repeated on network non prime time, your residuals are also to be sent within 30 days of the air date of the repeat.
If your made for television work goes into syndication, which means the entire series is sold to individual television stations across the country for daily stripping (Monday through Friday airplay at the same time each day), your residuals are also to be sent within 4 months of the air date of the repeat. If you’re a recurring character or series regular, your checks will probably be aggregated into one payment every month or quarter.
Say the made for television work you do is shown and/or repeated on foreign free TV, like the BBC or ABC in Australia. Your residuals are to be sent no later than 30 days after producer obtains knowledge of the first foreign telecast and never later than six months after that first telecast.
And if your made for television work you do is shown on basic cable, then every quarter, the producer is to tally up your residuals and send them to you.
If, instead of television work, your work is a SAG film released in theaters, or what’s called “Made-for-Theatrical,” and then that work is shown and/or repeated on network prime time, your residuals are to be sent within 30 days of the air date of the initial airing. After that, it’s sent quarterly.
If your film work is shown and/or repeated on free TV that isn’t a network wide showing, like an ad-hoc network of individual stations put together by the film company, or even individual stations that pick up the film and show it, your residuals are to be sent within 4 months of the air date of the initial airing. After that, the payments are sent quarterly.
Finally, should your theatrical film work is picked up and released in supplemental markets and formats, like DVD, video on demand, the Internet, pay per view and the like, your residuals are to be sent within 4 months of the first release in each of those particular categories. After that, the payments are sent quarterly, based on a pool of profit generated from each category.
Understand that these are time periods as prescribed by SAG union contracts. In the real world, your check may arrive faster or slower, or, in the case of a production house that goes out of business, perhaps not at all. That rarely happens, as productions are assets that are sold from company to company, but the responsibility to track and pay residuals survives that kind of transaction. Check with your Guild or Federation representative if you feel you have residuals that are outstanding.
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