Film Accounting Glossary
Pattern budget
What is a pattern budget?
Also called episodic pattern budget, or pattern.
A pattern budget is the template episodic budget for a television season, showing the standard cost of a typical episode before episode-specific variations.
Actual episodes are then budgeted against the pattern, with the season's total driven by the pattern plus amortized costs like standing sets and prep. It is the tool that lets a studio and a network agree on a per-episode cost before any scripts are final.
Example
A ten-episode season with a $4.2M pattern budget plus $780,000 of amortized standing sets and $1.1M of season prep totals about $43.9M. Individual episodes then run above or below pattern depending on stunts, locations, and cast.
Figures are illustrative, chosen to show the mechanics rather than to quote market rates.
Where you'll see it
Agreed between studio and network before scripts are final, then used as the baseline every episode is measured against.
Common mistake
Rolling the pattern forward year to year without revisiting the assumptions. Rates, agreements, and the schedule all move, and the pattern quietly stops being real.
Related questions
- What is a pattern budget in television?
- The template budget for a typical episode of a season, used as the baseline before episode-specific variations and amortized season costs are added.
- How does a pattern budget relate to a season budget?
- The season total is the pattern multiplied by the episode order, plus amortized items such as standing sets and season prep that no single episode carries.