Holding deal

In the entertainment industry, a holding deal is an agreement made between a studio or network (or other similar entity) and a person, such as an actor, producer or writer, that holds the person to be exclusive to that entity for an agreed upon period of time, usually one year or "season", for an agreed upon amount of money. It is most common for television networks to offer hot (someone in high demand) actors holding deals for an upcoming television season.

A holding deal is different from a development deal in that the holding deal is simply looking to place the talent in any project the network sees fit, as opposed to developing a project specifically for the talent.