--- title: "What Is a Minimum Guarantee (MG)? Content Licensing Explained | RentAnOTT" description: "A minimum guarantee is an upfront payment a streaming service commits to a rights holder, set against future revenue share. See how it works and its risks." url: "https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/minimum-guarantee" markdown_url: "https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/minimum-guarantee.md" category: "Monetization" updated: "2026-10-05" --- # What is a minimum guarantee (MG)? A minimum guarantee (MG) is an amount a streaming service commits to pay a rights holder for a title or catalog regardless of how it performs. It is normally an advance against revenue share: the rights holder receives further payments only once their share of earnings exceeds the guarantee. ## How a minimum guarantee works Suppose a service licenses a film with a $10,000 minimum guarantee and a 50% revenue share. If the film earns $14,000, the rights holder's share is $7,000, which is below the guarantee, so they keep the $10,000 and nothing more is due. If it earns $30,000, their share is $15,000, and the service pays a further $5,000, known as overage. ## Common deal structures - Flat fee: a fixed price for the license, with no revenue share - Revenue share only: no advance; the rights holder is paid a percentage of what the title earns - Minimum guarantee plus share: an advance, then overage once it is recouped - Per-subscriber fee: an amount per subscriber per month, sometimes with a minimum number of subscribers ## The risk on each side The guarantee moves risk to the service: it pays even if nobody watches. Rights holders ask for one when they doubt a service's reach or reporting. A new service can often negotiate a lower guarantee in exchange for a higher share. Any deal with a share needs reporting the rights holder can trust: plays, sales and revenue per title, per territory and per period. ## Minimum guarantee on RentAnOTT RentAnOTT analytics report revenue from subscriptions, transactions and ads, and the CMS includes finance reporting, which supports per-title statements for rights holders. [See features](https://www.rentanott.com/features). ## Related terms - [Content licensing](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/content-licensing) — Content licensing is the agreement by which the owner of a film, series or event grants a streaming service the right to show it, for a set period, in set territories, under set business models, in exchange for payment. - [Revenue share](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/revenue-share) — Revenue share is an arrangement in which income from a streaming service is split by percentage between parties, for example between a service and its platform vendor, an app store, a payment provider or the owner of the content. - [Territorial rights](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/territorial-rights) — Territorial rights are the rights to distribute a title in a particular country or region. A license names the territories it covers, and the streaming service may show the title only to viewers located there. - [TVOD](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/tvod) — TVOD (transactional video on demand) is a streaming model where viewers pay once for a single title or event, either renting it for a limited time or buying it to keep. - [Release window](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/release-window) — A release window is a period during which a title is available through one distribution channel or business model before it moves to the next. Windowing is the practice of ordering those periods so that each audience pays the most it is willing to. - [Video analytics](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/video-analytics) — Video analytics is the measurement of how a streaming service is used and how it performs: who the viewers are, what they watch and for how long, what revenue results and how reliably the video plays. ## Further reading - [How to start a streaming service](https://www.rentanott.com/blogs/how-to-start-a-streaming-service) - [Streaming aggregators explained](https://www.rentanott.com/blogs/streaming-aggregators) - [OTT revenue calculator](https://www.rentanott.com/tools/ott-revenue-calculator) ## Frequently asked questions ### What does MG stand for? MG stands for minimum guarantee. ### Is a minimum guarantee refundable if a title underperforms? No. That is the point of it: the rights holder keeps the guarantee whatever the title earns. ### What does recoupment mean? The point at which the rights holder's share of revenue has reached the amount of the guarantee. Only earnings beyond that point trigger further payments. All 163 terms: [Streaming and OTT glossary](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary). ## Book a demo Tell RentAnOTT what you are launching. The team walks through the platform and maps the path to go-live around your catalog, markets and revenue model. Book a demo: https://www.rentanott.com/contact ## More from RentAnOTT - [Home](https://www.rentanott.com/index.md) — What RentAnOTT is, what every plan includes, and how launch works - [Features](https://www.rentanott.com/features.md) — Every core feature and optional add-on - [Pricing](https://www.rentanott.com/pricing.md) — Platform tiers, apps, add-ons, usage rates and example bills in INR and USD - [Free tools](https://www.rentanott.com/tools.md) — OTT app builder and calculators for streaming revenue, bandwidth, bitrate and pricing - [Insights](https://www.rentanott.com/blogs.md) — All streaming business articles - [Glossary](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary.md) — Definitions of streaming and OTT terms - [Book a demo](https://www.rentanott.com/contact.md) — Talk to RentAnOTT about your launch Full site in one file: https://www.rentanott.com/llms-full.txt