A straight question with a slippery answer. The honest version: a voiceover in Australia in 2025/26 costs exactly what the MEAA Voiceover Rate Card 1 July 2025 says it costs, plus super, plus agency. The cells are public, the multipliers are published, the arithmetic is closed. This guide walks the actual dollar figures — by buy type, by territory, by typical producer scenario — so the number you put in the budget line is the number the invoice comes back at.

The headline cells

Start with the four figures every Australian TVC producer should know by heart:

  • Television, 15/30s, national, 12-month: $985.
  • Two-platform bundle, 15/30s, 12-month: $1,375.
  • Radio + audio streaming, 12-month: $815.
  • VO Subs submission fee: $220 flat.
Television 15/30s national 12-month: $985. Two-platform 15/30s 12-month: $1,375. Radio + audio streaming 12-month: $815. (MEAA Voiceover Rate Card 1 July 2025 v9)

Platform bundles and the 155% cap

Most 2026 briefs land on some combination of TV, online video and digital display. The rate card answers this with platform bundles rather than forcing a separate cell per channel.

  • One platform — the published base cell.
  • Two platforms — $1,375 at 15/30s 12-month.
  • Three platforms — caps at 155% of the base cell. Platforms four and five do not compound further under the bundle structure.

If the client is asking for TV, online video and a social cut, you are in three-platform territory and the cap applies. If they are asking for TV plus online only, you are in the $1,375 cell. Full structural walkthrough in the MEAA voiceover rate card guide.

Territory multipliers stack on top

The headline cells quote national Australian usage. Every step up the territory ladder multiplies the base figure:

  1. Metro → Regional → National (the headline cell sits here).
  2. National → Oceania (Australia + New Zealand + Pacific).
  3. Oceania → Asia Pacific.
  4. Asia Pacific → Global, capped at 6× the base cell.

So a television 15/30s cell that sits at $985 national rolls up to a hard ceiling of roughly $5,910 for a fully global 12-month buy. That is the worst case — you are not quoting an exotic bespoke figure, you are quoting the published Global step.

Cinema and DOOH add-ons

Cinema and DOOH (digital out-of-home) are separately published cells inside the Visual branch. They are not rolled into the standard two-platform bundle — if the media plan includes either, it is an additional line item on top of the TV/online figure. DOOH in particular is where producers most often under-quote, because it does not feel like a "platform" in the TV-first mental model. If the spot is playing on shopping-centre screens, airport screens or roadside digital billboards, DOOH is in the buy.

Super, agency and what producers actually budget

Every figure above is a performer gross. Three layers sit on top:

  • Super Guarantee — 12% for FY25–26, on top of gross, not deducted from it.
  • Agency commission — typically 10% on a performer's own talent agency, or 20%+GST where the booking routes through a casting house on an unrepresented talent.
  • GST where the invoicing entity is registered.

So a $985 TV cell at national for a registered agency-repped talent lands closer to ~$1,215 producer-out-the-door once super and 10% agency are stacked, before GST. The voiceover calculator does this build automatically.

Typical producer scenarios

Four briefs that land most weeks:

  • TV-only national buy, 15/30s, 12-month. Base cell $985. Add super + agency on top.
  • Radio-only national buy, 12-month. Base cell $815. Same stack on top.
  • TV + online video, 15/30s, 12-month, national. Two-platform bundle: $1,375.
  • Global campaign, TV + online + social, 15/30s, 12-month. Three-platform bundle at the 155% cap, then Global territory multiplier on top — this is the ceiling case.

Don't forget the $220

Before any booking fee, the $220 VO Subs submission fee applies per performer per audition round. On a five-voice shortlist that is $1,100 before you have cast the spot. It is a published fee, not a negotiable soft cost, and it is the single most common missing line item in first-draft voiceover budgets.

VO Subs submission fee: $220 flat, per performer, per submission (MEAA Voiceover Rate Card 1 July 2025 v9, section 11).

Price a specific brief in the voiceover calculator, or build a whole-of-shoot budget — voiceover plus performer plus overtime plus super — in the full rate builder.