The Writers Guild of America (WGA) settled on a new contract with Hollywood studios after a strike that lasted a record-breaking 148 days.
According to the guild, this is an "exceptional" arrangement, and the next vote by members should be a landslide. Although not yet formally recognized, the strike has ended, and production in Hollywood may continue.
Getting Back to Writing Duties
The good news is that writing tasks can resume. Before the Hollywood studios and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) could reach a new contract and end the actors' strike, production could not proceed.
SAG negotiations will renew as soon as next week, and the advances made in the new WGA deal will likely serve as a pattern for the current talks.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) is an alliance of Hollywood companies that includes Disney, Warner Bros., Paramount, Netflix, Apple, Amazon, and more. In their arrangement with the writers, they established the conditions of their contracts for the following three years. More information about the new tentative contract is available on the WGA website.
Fresh Deal
According to 9to5Mac, increases to the basic minimum wage are included, as are safeguards against introducing artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. Benefits and assurances for writers working in pre-production are also improved.
This contract contains a bonus payment schedule for high-budget streaming media, which may be the most crucial aspect as the industry shifts more toward digital streaming rather than a broadcast TV paradigm.
A writer will get a bonus of 50% of their regular residual payment if a high-budget streaming program or movie is watched by more than 20% of a streaming service's subscriber base during the first 90 days of its release. For a one-hour TV program, this is about the same as a bonus of $16,000, and for a full-length movie, it is around $40,000.
The guild initially wanted streamers to provide more viewership and demographic information publicly, but the streamers refused. The guild will have access to private information on the number of viewers for each original series in the US and other countries. Still, it is prohibited from making such information public. It can only share certain 'aggregate' viewing statistics to protect privacy.
To recommence production on key titles like the second season of Severance, Apple has to secure a contract with the writers to get the content pipeline for Apple TV+ back up and running. However, when precisely it will be is yet unknown.
A speedy agreement with the SAG-AFTRA is unlikely since the holiday seasons of Thanksgiving and Christmas would interfere. With so many studios competing for resources, productions must juggle and plan around whatever sets, actors, and crews are available.
