UPDATE: SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP said on Monday evening (October 2) that Monday’s first contract talks in over two months had concluded and the parties will resume on Wednesday in Los Angeles.
Studio and streamer heads Donna Langley (NBCUniversal), Bob Iger, (Disney), Ted Sarandos (Netflix) and David Zaslav (Warner Bros Discovery) attended, which is a positive sign.
However the sense is these resumed talks may take longer to produce a tentative agreement than it took the writers and AMPTP last week.
No studio or streamer can go into production with union actors until the strike is over. In the independent sphere the ongoing work stoppage – now in its 81st day – means sales agents still face an uphill battle assembing packages, with the AFM in Santa Monica a month away.
Talent agents are playing it by the book and have made it clear they are by and large unwilling to send scripts to their clients unless a project has a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement.
There has been a big backlog in processing applications for interim agreements, which risks turning a potential golden runway for independent production into a relatively barren patch of stalled projects.
ORIGINAL REPORT: SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP negotiators are resuming talks in midtown Los Angeles today (October 2) for the first time since talks broke down in July, triggering the 81-day work stoppage.
All or some of studio and streamer heads Donna Langley (NBCUniversal), Bob Iger, (Disney), Ted Sarandos (Netflix) and David Zaslav (Warner Bros Discovery) are expected to attend, as they did last week’s Writers Guild of America (WGA) talks.
There is no guarantee Monday’s session will spark consistent engagement throughout the week, and the sense in the industry is negotiations may not be as decisive as last week’s WGA sessions, even though the presence of the CEOs is likely to bring efforts to end the ongoing dispute into sharp focus.
Negotiators for the writers and AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) arrived at a tentative new TV and theatrical three-year deal which is being ratified by WGA membership in a week-long period starting today.
The actors’ union do not want that agreement nor the one for Directors Guild of America reached in June to serve as a direct template for its talks. Last week recently re-elected president Fran Drescher told CNN “one size doesn’t fit all”.
Despite what is understood to have been fairly regular backchannel talks since SAG-AFTRA went on strike on July 14, both sides remain quite far apart on the key issues and have exchanged heated statements.
Back in July during contract renewal talks SAG-AFTRA demanded an 11% general wage increase in Year 1 to overcome high inflation, and said the studios responded with an offer of 5%.
On the matter of AI, the union wanted to put informed consent and fair compensation in place for when a digital replica is made or an actor’s performance is changed using AI. It said the studios, among other things, wanted to scan a performer’s image, pay them for half a day’s work and use that likeness in perpetuity without consent.
SAG-AFTRA also wants to share the spoils of streaming revenues since they say the model has “eroded” residuals income. The union said the streamers rejected the demand.
On Monday WGA’s West and East chapters urged the AMPTP and its member companies to negotiate “the fair deal that members of SAG-AFTRA need and deserve” and recognised the need to forge a deal that addresses the actors’ specific concerns.
The union added, “Rather than engage in the traditional AMPTP tactic of pushing a deal on SAG-AFTRA that is patterned on our own tentative agreement or any other industry deal, a strategy which has already caused considerable delay and suffering, the companies must make a deal that addresses the needs of performers.
“WGA members will continue to show up on picket lines and support SAG-AFTRA until they reach that deal. Solidarity forever.”
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