The gathering planned for Wednesday has been rescheduled due to union negotiators opting to extend their preparation time before responding to the studio’s proposals.
Negotiations between SAG-AFTRA and Hollywood studios have been rescheduled for Thursday after the performers’ union decided to take more time to offer responses to the companies’ latest proposals.
On Thursday, SAG-AFTRA will engage in a face-to-face meeting to provide their response to the companies’ offers, following what sources have described as a lackluster return to negotiations on Tuesday. During that session, representatives for management, including Disney CEO Bob Iger, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, NBCUniversal Studio Group chairman and chief content officer Donna Langley, and Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, presented a revised rendition of the success-based streaming bonus. This version is based on the proposal that the Writers Guild of America accepted in September, designed to reward members involved in successful streaming projects.
However, the current studio offers still fall significantly short of what SAG-AFTRA had been pushing for. Initially, the union had been seeking a share of the revenue generated by series featured on streaming platforms, starting at 2 percent and later adjusted to 1 percent. When studios expressed strong reservations about this approach, the union shifted its focus towards imposing a fee on streaming subscribers. The idea was to establish a compensation structure that would more generously benefit members as the streaming industry expanded, thereby avoiding the need for constant battles to enhance streaming residuals every three years.
Despite these efforts, the studio representatives were reluctant to agree to this approach. This led to a walkout from negotiations that lasted nearly two weeks, beginning on October 11, largely due to this new proposal.
According to one source within the union, the studios’ proposal for a success-based streaming bonus would only impact approximately 40 out of the roughly 600 shows and would result in an additional annual revenue of around $27 million. This is a significant contrast to the $500 million per year proposal that SAG-AFTRA had put forward earlier in the month. The gathering planned
On Tuesday, the studios also presented a larger annual pay increase for performers’ contractually defined minimum wages. Management suggested a 7 percent wage increase in the first year of the contract, up from the 5 percent they had previously offered, and an 11 percent increase for background performers. However, SAG-AFTRA had been advocating for an 11 percent increase for all performers in the first year to account for inflation. The union’s response to this latest development remains to be seen.