Hollywood Studios Send Writers New Offer

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By GARY GENTILE

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Film and TV writers who've been on strike for nearly a month are mulling a new contract offer from Hollywood studios. Producers said the offer they presented Thursday, dubbed the "New Economic Partnership," would pay writers millions of dollars extra for work shown on the Internet, a central issue in negotiations.

The writers asked for a recess in the talks until Tuesday to consider their options, but called on members to continue picketing Friday and Monday.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said it was willing to offer $130 million in extra pay over the life of the proposed three-year deal. The offer is "above and beyond the more than $1.3 billion writers already receive each year," the alliance said in a statement.


Writers Guild of America pickets march and chant outside an outdoor stage where the taping of musical guest Soulja Boy for "Last Call With Carson Daly" was scheduled to occur on an outdoor stage at NBC Studios in Burbank, Calif., as the WGA strike against motion picture and television producers continues Thursday, Nov. 29, 2007. Originally scheduled to start around 6 p.m., the performance had not begun by 7:30 p.m. The Daly show was to become the first late-night talk show to defy the writers strike and resume production. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)


The Writers Guild of America countered with a lengthy response, saying the producers' proposal only dealt with advertising-supported programs streamed for free and jurisdiction over shows created for the Web "and it amounts to a massive rollback."

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20071130/D8T7V2M80.html

[kstewart33]

1. The writers have these guys.

Good for them for hanging in. The studios must be sweating bullets with no new shows and declining ad revenues now that they're showing reruns.

[Voltaire99]

2. Whatever they're offering you...

...I'll double it so you WON'T write.

Enough crappy American TV, enough!

[villager]

3. WGA Statement on offer:

http://www.btlnews.com/blog/archives/79

Excerpt:

For streaming television episodes, the companies proposed a residual structure of a single fixed payment of less than $250 for a year’s reuse of an hour-long program (compared to over $20,000 payable for a network rerun). For theatrical product they are offering no residuals whatsoever for streaming.

For made-for-Internet material, they offered minimums that would allow a studio to produce up to a 15-minute episode of network-derived web content for a script fee of $1300. They ontinued to refuse to grant jurisdiction over original content for the Internet.

In their new proposal, they made absolutely no move on the download formula (which they propose to pay at the DVD rate), and continue to assert that they can deem any reuse “promotional,” and pay no residual (even if they replay the entire film or TV episode and even if they make money).

The AMPTP says it will have additional proposals to make but, as of Thursday evening, they have not been presented to us. We are scheduled to meet with them again on Tuesday.

In the meantime, we felt it was essential to update you accurately on where negotiations stand. On Wednesday we presented a comprehensive economic justification for our proposals. Our entire package would cost this industry $151
million over three years. That’s a little over a 3% increase in writer earnings each year, while company revenues are projected to grow at a rate of 10%. We are falling behind.

[Tunkamerica]

4. The Daly Show?

Do you think that's an intentional mis-naming? Perhaps for people with only passing knowledge of either show to confuse the two. I realize it was correctly named earlier in the article, but it still could be confusing if you've never watched either program.