..During our negotiations on Thursday, November 29th, the WGA asked for a halt in talks until Tuesday, December 4th to give the WGA time to study our New Economic Partnership. While we strongly preferred to continue discussions without any interruption, we also understood the WGA’s need to take the time necessary to process our groundbreaking New Economic Partnership. We therefore were disappointed to see such a quick and decisive attack on the plan that they had asked for so much time to study. We look forward to resuming talks on December 4th.
The AMPTP have proposed to the WGA a comprehensive plan designed to forge a New Economic Partnership.
This plan would help writers and producers prosper in the rapidly changing, highly competitive and increasingly globalized economy in which we all work.
History has demonstrated what happens to industries that do not adapt to new technology and other modern economic realities, and we are determined to give the entertainment business the best possible opportunity to survive and grow.
And now--The Nuts & Bolts Of The Offer:
The AMPTP plan for a New Economic Partnership could potentially deliver to writers more than $130 million in additional compensation over the life of the 3-year contract, above and beyond the more than $1.3 billion writers already receive each year. That is in addition to what writers would receive in new jurisdiction and revenue sharing opportunities in new media. All totaled the average compensation for a working writer could increase up to $31,000, on top of the current average working writer’s salary of more than $200,000.
Our plan would also ensure the continued viability and excellence of the writers’ health care and pension plans, which are already among the very best in the country, providing them with long-term financial protection that is simply unavailable to many American workers.
We have also offered to continue and increase our payments to writers for the use of their content in “new media” markets.
Details
In its New Economic Partnership plan, the AMPTP has offered writers:
-- Residual payments for Internet streaming. This gives writers a completely new source of compensation, one which they currently do not receive in their current contract.
-- Exclusive WGA representation over “derivative” programming made for new media, meaning that the Guild will have jurisdiction over content made for the new media market which is derived from their work on comedy and dramatic programs in the television market. This also gives writers a completely new source of compensation, one which they do not have in their current contract.
-- Residual payments for programming delivered over alternative digital broadcast channels, an industry first.
-- Increases in the amount of money paid to writers for their work on a wide variety of motion picture and television projects.
--Continuing contributions to the writers’ pension and health benefit funds, ensuring lifelong financial and health security.
--A contribution of more than $500,000 over the next three years for a showrunner training program to be run by the Guild.
--Consultation with showrunners in cases where product integration is contemplated for television programs.
The AMPTP Compromises
In the interest of promoting a positive atmosphere for negotiations, and out of respect for the views of the writers on key issues, the AMPTP has:
-- Formally withdrawn twenty-nine proposals from its original plan.
-- Offered to remove six additional proposals.
Among the proposals withdrawn by the AMPTP is the one involving recoupment, which would have provided that producers pay residuals to writers only after they recovered their basic costs. Withdrawal of the recoupment proposal means that producers will continue to pay writers residuals, before recovering basic costs on programs, and even when films and television shows have lost money.
Conclusion
The negotiations between writers and producers have taken place in the context of a paradigm shift in how entertainment is distributed and consumed. Our industry must keep pace with those changes lest we lose audiences to competition that didn’t even exist just a few short years ago.
At the same time, we know the impact that the writers’ strike is having, not only on the producers of entertainment and the writers themselves, but on the thousands of workers who have lost jobs, or face diminished income, simply because the business of making entertainment has been slowed. The economy of this region is at risk.
We continue to believe that common ground can be found between the two sides, and our comprehensive New Economic Partnership is designed to make an agreement possible
Given all of that...
The Writers Guild of America sent out the following email to its members on Friday afternoon:
Fellow members:
There are a lot of rumors and questions floating around, and we’d like to address them.
HAVE NEGOTIATIONS BROKEN DOWN? No.
DID OUR NEGOTIATING COMMITTEE ASK FOR A BREAK? No.
THEN WHY THE FOUR-DAY BREAK? On Thursday, the studios and networks gave us some of their proposals, and said they needed more time to fashion the rest. Therefore talks were scheduled to resume on Tuesday.
THE COMPANIES SAY THEY ARE OFFERING US IS A $130 MILLION INCREASE. THE GUILD CALLS IT A ROLLBACK. WHY THE DISPARITY? The companies have still not explained how they arrived at their $130 million figure, but we can certainly explain how this is a rollback.
OKAY. SO HOW IS THEIR MADE-FOR-INTERNET PROPOSAL A ROLLBACK? Currently, the writer of a 30-minute prime-time TV show makes almost $21,000. The conglomerates are proposing that if that writer wrote the same show for the Internet, his or her initial compensation would be $2,600. That’s a rollback of 88%.
SO WHAT’S THEIR OFFER ON INTERNET RERUNS? Currently, the writer of a half-hour television episode makes about $11,600 when his or her episode is first re-run on TV. The companies are proposing that if that same episode is rerun instead on the Internet, they will pay the whopping total of $139 for unlimited reruns for one year--and nothing at all if it only streams for six weeks. About a third of all TV series are now being rerun only on the Internet. This amounts to an immediate 98.8% rollback. And it gets worse. If they decide to call a show “promotional,” they don’t have to pay us anything. It’s a “freepeat.”
WOW. AND WHAT ABOUT FEATURES? Are you sitting down? The companies want to be able to stream any and all feature films in their entirety, supported by advertising dollars, and pay the writers nothing. Zip.
Nada. Bupkus. A 100% rollback.
GIVEN ALL THIS, HOW IN THE WORLD DID THE COMPANIES COME UP WITH THE 130 MILLION DOLLAR FIGURE? Our question exactly. It’s definitely not a three-year number. As near as we can figure, their proposal might net us that total around the year 2107.
YOU HAVEN’T SAID ANYTHING NEW ABOUT DOWNLOADS. Neither have they. We are hoping that they will address this essential issue by Tuesday. Stay tuned.
In solidarity,
Nick Kazan
Howard A. Rodman
Phil Robinson
Tom Schulman
(for the Board of Directors)
Each side claims that the other needed to take the "till Tuesday" time out. Sheesh--If neither side can agree on that--We're in trouble...
And if this headline from MarketWatc portends the future then there's still a long riad to hoe ahead fir all concerned:
Writers lukewarm to latest AMPTP proposal
The WGA email used the same words that I use quite often on this blog-If the term fits use it...Stay Tuned...
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