Cynthia Littleton Business Editor SAG-AFTRA has released the full 128-page contract that ended the actors strike on Nov. 8, with union leaders urging members to vote yes on the deal by the Dec. 5 ratification deadline.
09.11.2023 - 18:59 / variety.com
Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer SAG-AFTRA‘s new contract is worth more than $1 billion over three years. But the union did not get one of its top priorities: a share of revenue from each streaming platform. Fran Drescher, the union president, made that her top priority, arguing it was essential to transform the contract to keep up with a transformed industry.
She sought 2% of streaming revenue, later cut to 1%, or about $500 million per year. The studios vowed that would never happen, and it did not. Instead, the union won a “streaming participation bonus” that will be worth about $40 million annually, according to Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the union’s top negotiator.
“It’s not $500 million,” he said in an interview on Thursday. “We were never expecting that would be the ultimate number. On the other hand, adding something that is worth $120 million over the term of the contract is significant.” Actors’ residuals on made-for-streaming shows are capped at fairly low levels.
An actor on a one-hour episode of an Amazon show would make no more than $2,000 in the first year of reuse. The same episode on a broadcast network could pay up to $3,600 for each rerun, with the potential for multiple reruns in a year. Drescher argued that in order for actors to be able to sustain a livelihood in the streaming era, it was essential to “get into the pocket” of streaming revenue.
“We have to find the pocket of that money, so we get our rightful share because we’re building this platform and they are building the business on us,” she told Variety in July. When the studios refused to share revenue, SAG-AFTRA came back with a proposal for a 57-cent-per-subscriber fee. That, too, went nowhere.
Cynthia Littleton Business Editor SAG-AFTRA has released the full 128-page contract that ended the actors strike on Nov. 8, with union leaders urging members to vote yes on the deal by the Dec. 5 ratification deadline.
Over two weeks after SAG-AFTRA reached a deal with the studios and ended their nearly four-month long strike, the actors guild has just released the full text of the tentative agreement.
Matthew Modine voted against SAG-AFTRA’s tentative agreement with the studios once, and he’s damn sure going to vote against it again.
Matthew Modine voted against SAG-AFTRA’s tentative agreement with the studios once, and he’s going to vote against it again.
Less than 48 hours before SAG-AFTRA members begin voting on ratifying their new deal with the studios, the actors guild has released an extensive summary of the potential three-year contract.
Following today’s vote by the majority of SAG-AFTRA‘s National Board to approve the tentative agreement reached with studio CEOs and the AMPTP earlier this week, the actor’s guild has released more details of the deal.
The studios wasted no time Friday responding to the SAG-AFTRA National Board’s vote to approve the new tentative agreement between the guild and the AMPTP.
SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher and National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland on Friday laid out how the actors’ 118-day strike was ended and their thoughts on the deal with the AMPTP.
SAG-AFTRA national board approved its new contract with the major studios with an 86% approval vote, sending it to membership for ratification. The official approval was announced by the guild at a press conference Friday afternoon, which finally got started at around 3:20 p.m. after an 80-minute delay.
The actors are set to vote on the tentative agreement with the studios after the SAG-AFTRA national board approved the deal.
In a full-circle moment, SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher is holding a press conference at 2 p.m. today in the James Cagney Boardroom of the guild’s Wilshire Boulevard headquarters, the same place that she fired up the troops with her strike-launching speech on July 13.
The International Federation of Actors (FIA) has praised SAG-AFTRA for taking on an “incredible fight for all performers around the world.
Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer SAG-AFTRA had settled dozens of issues, ranging from pension and health contributions, to page limits for self-taped auditions, to pay for background actors. But there was still the small matter of zombies. The union was worried that studios could use artificial intelligence to reanimate dead actors, or to create a digital Frankenstein out of the body parts of real actors.
EXCLUSIVE: “We know that generations from now they’ll be talking about this seminal contract and reaping the benefits of it in the way that we have been for the last 65 years with a contract that was negotiated when Ronald Reagan was in my position,” says SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher of the new contract the actors guild made with the studios on Wednesday after 118 days on strike.
The SAG-AFTRA strike is officially over, and new details about the union’s new contract with TV and film studios have been revealed!
Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer SAG-AFTRA negotiators have approved a tentative agreement that will end the longest actors strike against the film and TV studios in Hollywood history. In an announcement Wednesday, the union said the 118-day strike would officially end at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday.
Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer SAG-AFTRA‘s top negotiator has never done this before. Duncan Crabtree-Ireland has worked for the union for most of his adult life. In that time, he has become a master of the details.
Tyler Perry is speaking out on the SAG-AFTRA strike, now in its 117th day, as it appears a possible deal is getting much closer.
EXCLUSIVE: Today’s meeting between SAG-AFTRA and an expanded group of studio CEOs has just ended as the guild scrutinizes the AMPTP‘s long awaited response to their last comprehensive counter.
Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer SAG-AFTRA advised its members Monday night that negotiations will resume on Tuesday, but warned that the two sides remain “far apart” on key issues. The union and the major studios have been bargaining for a week, focusing on issues like increases in minimum payments, a new residual model in streaming, and artificial intelligence.