one deal down, two to go

Back before Christmas, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, or NAMBLA, put forth half of an offer for the WGA, never delivered the second half, and then walked out of the talks when the writers refused to accept the rather insulting New Economic Proposal. Since then, the WGA has made deals with several production companies since AMPTP wouldn’t talk to them anymore and called the WGA’s deal points ludicrous (the same points to which those production companies agreed).

Now the Directors Guild has made a deal with AMPTP and, well, let’s look first at some of what AMPTP offered the writers as their final take-it-or-leave-it offer:

• No coverage for writers creating content exclusively for the internet (i.e. no residuals, rights to the work, or health benefits)
• No residuals for a show streamed online if it’s declared to be promotional (even if it’s the entire show)
• No residuals for a show streamed online for the first 42 days
• After the first 42 days, a writer will earn a flat fee of $250 for a year’s streaming of a one hour show (compared to ~$20,000 for a year’s reruns on TV)
• No residuals for streaming movies.
• Paid downloads pay out at the same 0.3% as DVDs (a number established 20 years ago when the studios said it needed to be low because they weren’t sure if this “home video” thing would take off)
• The payout for downloads is based on the producer’s gross (which, thanks to clever accounting, is usually nil) not the distributor’s gross

The offer that the DGA and AMPTP worked out however says:

• Directors creating content exclusively for the web will be covered (if the production cost is greater than $15,000/minute)
• Only the first 17 days count as promotional streaming (upped to 24 days for a first season show)
• No residuals for the first 17 days that a show is streamed online.
• After that window, directors receive a 3% residual for the first 6 months and an additional 3% for the next six. After that first year the percentage drops to 2%
• Downloads pay out 0.3% for the first 100,000 of a TV show or 50,000 for a movie. After that, residuals on TV shows increase to 0.7% and movies to 0.65%
• Payout for downloads will be based on distributor’s gross with access granted to review the accounting data
• Additionally, a sunset provision is included (though details aren’t yet available on what it provides beyond the usual end of a contract negotiation)

So all in all, the directors received just about everything the writers wanted (including yearly increases in wages and health benefits instead of the rollbacks the studios offered the writers) that the studios said was impossible and would bankrupt Hollywood. (My information is all taken from the deal summary and analysis available on United Hollywood.)