Yahoo News Viewership Transparency, AI Among Issues Dividing Writers and Hollywood Companies in Contract Talks
Viewership-based residuals, artificial intelligence and minimum staffing for writers rooms are some of the issues that the Writers Guild of America wanted to tackle that went nowhere with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, according to a document laid out by the writers Monday night.
The proposals, and the alleged response by the studios, came after the AMPTP and the WGA ended negotiations Monday evening without a deal, with the WGA then calling for a strike to begin Tuesday.
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According to the document, revealing for the first time the exact nature of what the WGA was asking for, there was some movement on issues such as staff writer script fees and an increase in span cap, but other issues proved to be non-starters. (The Hollywood Reporter has asked the AMPTP for comment on its alleged responses as recorded in the document.)
For streaming projects, the WGA asked for viewership-based residuals, in addition to its existing fixed residuals, “to reward programs with greater viewership,” according to the document. This would require viewership transparency, something that streamers have proved to be unwilling to provide, even to the stars of shows and movies. The WGA said the AMPTP rejected the proposal and refused to make a counter.
Concerns about AI taking over writing also are alleged to have been glossed over by the studios. The WGA wanted to regulate the use of AI and wanted assurance that it could not be used to write or rewrite literary material, nor could it be used as source material. The AMPTP rejected the guild’s proposals, countering by offering annual meetings to discuss advancements in technology, the WGA said.
The features side showed some give and take, but the parties were still far apart as of Monday night. The WGA wants movies with a budget of $12 million-plus to receive their theatrical terms. The movie companies countered that films should be $40 million or more and were willing to make a 9 percent increase to initial compensation, although there was “no improvement in residuals” offered, the WGA said.
The guild also wanted a guaranteed second writing “step,” or point of payment, for feature deals, while the producers rejected that idea and instead said they were willing to have a meeting for executives and producers to educate them on writers’ “free work concerns.”
“The studios are more focused on greed than keeping people working,” observed one writer-producer when reading the proposals.
On the television side, the WGA and AMPTP are far apart on the guild’s efforts to “preserve” writers rooms with a proposal for a minimum of six writers per room and that number growing as the episode order does, with one additional staffer added for every two episodes, with a maximum of 12 per room. The proposal would effectively eliminate auteurs looking to write each and every episode of a series without the benefit of a room. The studios rejected the WGA’s proposals and have refused to counter, the guild said.
One of the other central issues at stake in the negotiations is the proliferation of so-called “mini rooms” that feature a handful of writers breaking stories before a formal series order, which is not always a guarantee. The guild is looking for guarantees of 10 straight weeks of work that include sending writers to set. The latter used to be a no-brainer for broadcast, but has fallen out of favor with studios and streamers given the added costs of getting writers to set. Some showrunners, like former WGA negotiating committee member Shawn Ryan (Netflix’s The Night Agent), have successfully requested that streamers send writers to set as they look to help train the next generation.
Heading into negotiations, many writers and lit agents were concerned with “span,” which is the time it takes to make scripted series. Span protections would ensure that writers are fairly compensated for programming that may take years to complete, a trend that has been increasingly common in the Peak TV era of lavish, premium content. The guild is proposing a minimum staff guaranteed 10 consecutive weeks of work and that writers be allowed at least three weeks per episode, with half of the minimum staff employed through production and one writer employed through postproduction. The studios rejected the proposals and declined to counter.
“They’re very, very far apart,” one showrunner with multiple series spread across broadcast and streaming platforms told THR after reviewing the proposals.
The WGA said its proposals would gain writers an estimated $429 million per year, with the AMPTP’s offer coming in at about $86 million annually, 48 percent of which is from the minimums (wage floor) increase. The WGA proposed minimum increases of 6 percent/5 percent/5 percent across the board over the course of the three-year contract, including residuals. The studios countered with 4 percent/3 percent/2 percent, including a one-time increase to residual bases of 2 percent or 2.5 percent.
There was some progress made over the weeks of bargaining, however, the WGA says: Tentative agreements include staff writers earning script fees in addition to their weekly salaries, an increase in span cap from $400,000 to $450,000, and extending those protections to writers on limited series. The guild also offered one free “promotional” airing for broadcast series.
In its own statement Monday night, the AMPTP said that sticking points in the negotiations included the WGA’s push for a minimum size and duration of writers rooms. These proposals “would require a company to staff a show with a certain number of writers for a specified period of time, whether needed or not,” the AMPTP said.
The Alliance added that it presented a “comprehensive package proposal” of compensation and streaming residuals increases on Sunday night, just one day before the expiration of the writers’ contract. “The AMPTP also indicated to the WGA that it is prepared to improve that offer, but was unwilling to do so because of the magnitude of other proposals still on the table that the Guild continues to insist upon,” the group said.
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