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The strike authorization ballots will go out to SAG’s paid-up members, anywhere from 100,000 to 110,000 of the 120,000, on January 2nd. The votes will be tabulated on January 23rd and the results announced the same day. (UPDATED: See just released SAG statement below. And the AMPTP’s response below that.) I’m told the decision was made to avoid the holidays and to ensure enough time for informational meetings. Only if 75% of the returned ballots are ”yes” votes will SAG leadership be given a strike authorization — not a strike but an authorization to call a strike without having to go back to members for another vote — to help leverage the stalled contract negotiations with Big Media’s AMPTP. It’s less clear what will happen if the “no” votes exceed 25% – though it could mean no more negotiations and the AMPTP’s last offer sent out to members to accept or reject. And if it’s rejected, well, SAG and Big Media are back at Square One. Here’s SAG’s statement:
LOS ANGELES, DECEMBER 10, 2008 — Screen Actors Guild today announced that strike authorization ballots will be mailed to paid-up SAG members on Friday January 2, 2009, and will be tabulated on Friday, January 23. A yes vote by 75% of members voting is required to pass the measure, which would authorize SAG’s national board of directors to call a strike, if and when the board determines it is necessary.
Screen Actors Guild National President Alan Rosenberg said, ”SAG members understand that their futures as professional actors are at stake and I believe that SAG members will evaluate the AMPTP’s June 30 offer, and vote to send us back to the table with the threat of a strike. A yes vote sends a strong message that we are serious about fending off rollbacks and getting what is fair for actors in new media. I am encouraged by the response of the capacity crowd at our Los Angeles town hall meeting Monday night.”
”We want SAG members to have time to focus on this critical referendum, so we have decided to mail ballots the day after New Year’s. We will continue our comprehensive education campaign and urge our members to vote yes on the strike authorization. I am confident that members around the country will empower our negotiating team with the leverage and strength of unified Screen Actors Guild members. Our objective remains to get a deal that SAG members will ratify- not to go on strike,” said SAG National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator, Doug Allen.
Ballots will be tabulated at Integrity Voting Systems in Everett, Washington. Passage requires 75% yes vote from those voting.
Here is the AMPTP response:
It’s now official: SAG members are going to be asked to bail out a failed negotiating strategy by going on strike during one of the worst economic crises in history. We hope that working actors will study our contract offer carefully and come to the conclusion that no strike can solve the problems that have been created by SAG’s own failed negotiation strategy.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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So, let me get this straight. The AMPTP calls SAG’s negotiating strategy “failed”, which means, I would guess, that SAG couldn’t get the AMPTP to move their positions far enough in order for SAG’s negotiating strategy to be successful? In this case, doesn’t this mean the AMPTP is admitting their “last best final” offer sucks for actors???
And if this is the case, isn’t the appropriate response on the part of SAG membership to authorize a strike in order to help its leadership move from a “failed” negotiating strategy to a successful one???
The audacity of SAG here is breathtaking. Typical actor mentality. They are not the only ones who work in this industry. The earth does not revolve around them but they believe it does. A strike by actors now would devastate the LA economy. Crew members, post production and people who rely on business generated by production will be out of work. Everyone will pay the price for the arrogance of SAG. The revenue stream for new media is still an ongoing experiment. Hulu has only been around for a year or so and I would bet its only making enough money from the advertising on it to run the site. It costs a lot of money to produce good content. A few banner ads are not going to cover that. The current model is an experiment and a freebie as most people want content for free on the internet. Asking for residuals from something that is not making money is crazy. SAG should sign a fair contract now and keep a close eye on new media revenue in the next couple of years. Then they come back to the table and have much more leverage. I am not a studio shill btw, just a guy trying to earn a living in this business.
I am shocked and amazed that there are people who don’t want to give our negotiators the power to strike. Are you kidding me? That’s the only power we have people. If the referendum doesn’t pass then the negotiations are over and we take the same crappy deal that AFTRA took. GUESS WHAT HAPPENS PEOPLE? The end of residuals. I make my living from residuals. I don’t have a second job. Haven’t in 10 years. Are you telling me that it should be okay for me to go back to being a bartender again? IT’S NOT OKAY. I worked my butt off to get to this level. AFTRA was foolish in taking the deal. But it’s not the first time. Any of you worked an AFTRA TV show lately? Wanna try and make a living from that?
I agree with virtually every anti-strike argument here. I acknowledge to SAG that the terms the AMPTP proposes aren’t great. But this is not the time for a strike. Not in these conditions. Especially when that strike will accomplish nothing because SAG has no leverage right now. That was squandered away months ago by bad leadership.
We’ve heard the arguments from both sides. But it comes down to one simple truth — a strike right now, in this economy, will only hurt the vast majority of people who work in the business and it will have an equally devastating effect on the Los Angeles economy. You can tell us to deliver that message and our concerns to the AMPTP, you can claim that the AMPTP is forcing you to strike and that you have no choice, you can repeat that as much as you like. But in the end, the public at large will blame actors, despise actors and hold you and your union responsible because you called a strike. No matter how you try to spin it, that will be on you.
If you have a conscience, if you care even a little about the lives of others who depend on production to survive, then you will not authorize a strike. Not now. You’ll wait three years and take up the issue then, with a better strategy and new leadership. It can’t be made any plainer than that.
And no, I’m not a shill, not working on behalf of the AMPTP. I work on a show, like a lot of other people in this business.
Ace Sez: “All of” us are not voting for a – “deciding to” – strike, we are voting to give our negotiators the power (”permission”) to strike if we’re forced to do so.”
And Hillary Clinton and John Kerry didn’t vote for the Iraq war, they only gave the president the authorization to prosecute one.
Personally I think Tom Hanks would vote yes on this. He has said that he doesn’t want to see a strike, but knows that the AMPTP is going to make him and all other actors strike.
Overall, Nick Counter forgot two things that will help both him and NBC. First off, when the strike authorization vote comes in, it will be on a Friday and most Americans don’t really pay attention to the news on Friday night. At the same time, this would give Wall Street and the AMPTP time to digest the results.
Second, NBC has to love this news because it saves the Golden Globes from the threat of a strike, and there will not be a boycott after what happened last year. On the other hand, the Oscars are in horrible trouble if the vote to strike is 75% or more. Somehow Nick Counter must love living on the edge.
Thom,
Yeah HULU is just scraping by with 70 million in revenue in 2008. It’s been operating less than a year.
From The Financial Times.
“Neither company breaks out its advertising revenues but Arash Amel, analyst at Screen Digest, forecasts that in 2008 YouTube will generate about $100m in the US, compared with about $70m at Hulu. Next year both sites will generate about $180m in the US, he says. YouTube currently earns around half of its revenues in the US, while Hulu has not yet launched internationally.”
Why bother fighting for New Media. The studios must be telling the truth. They’re not making a dime.
Hopefully you’re not a voting membe of SAG Thom, because what they don’t need right now is more uninformed members.
Not-A-Shill said “The only real solution is an Amalgamated Entertainment Guild”
Finally, someone says what needs to be said. For as long as two guilds exist, they will be played against each other by the big boys. And actors will still be cheated out of revenue from new and newer media.
And don’t forget the independent producers. Producers are the ones that actually make everything happen and the system is stacked against them. At the end of a deal they have no IP equity and they end up working for pennies, while the big boys keep it all.
Advice – Vote No. Keep the system going during the begining of this depression and immediately organize a new combined guild where everyone gets a piece of the pie.
UnitedActorsGuild.com is still available from Godaddy
Sincerely
Michael Relfe
@ Thom: You need to educate yourself — how can you even involve yourself in this discussion when you erroneously assert that Hulu uses banner ads? It doesn’t. It runs actual, profit-generating spots, and is making the studios money. Money that they are not paying residuals on to the writers, which is an out-and-out violation of the MBA. The AMPTP is breaking the law.
The fact that writers aren’t getting a dime on new media in violation of their contract is exactly why SAG should authorize a strike. Unless, of course, they like the idea of getting screwed just as the writers are being screwed.
WGA should have waited long enough to strike with SAG. Then the leeches that are the AMPTP could have been brought to their knees.
Hasn’t anyone noticed that NBC after this season is doing away with a drama or sitcoms, etc. in the prime time hour of 10 pm? Instead we get Jay Leno because it’s cheaper for them. No new show to go into this time slot means less jobs for tv actors. What about Diedre Hall and Drake Hogestyn being let go on Days of Our Lives because they were getting a lot of money. Again NBC or whoever pays them had to cut the budget somewhere. If you strike you may be looking at little to no work and possibly less than what’s currently available. Do you really want to add to more unemployment with your selfish act? You might just put yourselves out of work with another strike. Bad enough we had to deal with a writer’s strike last year and now a potentional actors’ strike? I don’t watch that many shows on NBC, Fox, etc. and when I do it’s mainly Fox. BBC America has great shows, no writer’s strike, no actors’ strikes either to worry about. We have reality channels to chose stuff from to so don’t think your jobs are secure by any means!
What I think has been forgotten is that it has been month since you started this.
The industry has slowed to a crawl. I first heat about a possible strike in May or June ? You had some talks that went nowhere. You waited 3 months to get a mediator to help. I first remember hearing strike vote in October, then November, then December and now your saying January ? to be counted on Jan 23 rd ? The IA workers have seen new jobs stop. There are no new projects starting cuz of possible strike. No movies have started in months because of possible strike. Now you want to prolong it out more and you wonder why we’re mad ? You think we’re supportive ? I am not a shill, I am a IATSE member seeing my career and bank account fading to a slow death because of a “possible strike” that took soooooo long to possibly happen. If you would have voted and done something 4-6 months ago you would have had backing by a lot of crafts. No one cares if you get what you want because you got it at the expense of so many peoples life’s and livelihood. This is not you fighting for us, you have killed us then stepped on us to get it.
The strike authorization vote will fail with 53% simple majority “yes” vote. The AMTP will then pull the current offer off the table, as producers will feel it’s totally irrational to offer actors a cent more than paying them under the expired SAG contract. “No” voters will be perplexed that promising producers there will be no strike leads to no new contract offered, the old one having been pulled off the table. Film production will ramp up to a mild crawl and work will be scarce because insurers will still be reluctant to issue completion bonds without an AMTP/SAG contract. SAG members who are no fi-core will defy rule one and work non-union shoots for new media despite a few “symbolic” SAG board hearings over rule one violation. Those who voted “no” will blame everybody but themselves that “new media” is the new music video where they’ll be lucky to get paid at all, let alone ever see a dime of residuals. Commercial actors will see their income slowly disappear as advertisers stick products in the hand of actors without compensation in order to create “actor payment and fast-forward-proof” commercials. AMPTP will never pay force majure payments owed, nor will they pay any new payments due under the expired contract. AFTRA will continue to gain jurisdiction by contracting actors’ services for chump change, and will continue toward rolling back or eliminating residuals as it did on “bold and the beautiful” in order to shove actors under the bus to preserve itself. Not only will actors not merge with other performing unions, but they won’t even be able to unify among themselves. Producers will be grateful that SAG will have voted itself out of the power to interfere with the Oscars which will go forward as planned. AMPTP will have renewed faith in the power of 100% hardball and will roll over other performing unions like bowling pins.
Believe me, don’t believe me. It doesn’t matter. Watch.
Luzid:
No offense to my acting brothers and sisters, but SAG is seriously effed up. No way the WGA should have waited for them.
But even if they had waited for SAG, the writers wouldn’t have gotten a better deal as long as Certain Former Guild Presidents were promoting a shit deal with DGA and the AMPTP.
That gurgling sound is from the throat AFTRA cut on all performers. They are and will remain a worthless, bankrupt union. Why “yes?” This current crop of executives have no respect for the profession. There are but a few performers that are quite accustomed to being out of work. These execs will get laid off from their respective conglomerate. They can push their pencils elsewhere unless Tom Hanks is willing to do his dialog to a “c” stand for his 20 million. We gave up on reasonable Dvd’s residuals and the studio stance is to whittle this previous weakness further by this firm stance. I know this effects all filmmakers in other crafts, but is is time to stand against the suits. I can do their job, but they can’t do mine. If they could, the “biz” wouldn’t shut down. The suits hold all craft persons in contempt which is why they hate to pay you while they jump in their new Mercedes on their way to Bel Aire. As to SAG’s leadership… S**t or get off the pot!
@ Grippin’ in LA – yeah, Youtube’s generating millions, but last I heard, they’ve never made a profit. You think serving millions of videos a day is cheap?! Youtube probably spends every day what you earn in a year.
I love that the AMPTP uses the word “bail out,” every time they send out a missive or response. Can’t their paid hacks do better than that? Maybe they should hire the WGA to write their propaganda for them.
Members of SAG I see the flaws of unions, but authorize your union to strike, you have no leverage otherwise, and it is quite clear that in this game of poker, if you don’t at least threaten one, you will lose all your chips and your union will be broken for the next generation, at least.
All of this extraordinarily intelligent gamesmanship on the part of the producer.
Hard economy + no love for unions (see UAW) = a crushing blow to ever receiving a residual payment or decent health care again. They can roll it all back now and never give an inch again, just as the old models die and the new models come in. If you do not win now they will never have to pay you a fair wage again for anything involving new media.
I know everyone just wants to work, but when times are hardest, that’s when you need to step up or their won’t be any work for you, or at least no living to be made at it. As I said, I don’t think unions are perfect, but in this case SAG leadership is right, as network TV becomes a dinosaur to new media, this is now make or break time.
Empower your leaders to empower you and prepare yourselves now. The fight is now and its repercussions will last for years to come.
Isn’t a SAG strike now about like the UAW going out for better pay and benefits…this week? Not a propitious time to hold a labor action?
Enrigue,
Youtube is making a profit. Their operating costs all in are roughly $5 million dollars a month while their revenue is is roughly $8.3 million a month and growing. Google, which owns them, isn’t making money but that’s due to aggressive expansion and buying up the competition.
Yes, Youtube spends more in a day than I make in a year, like somehow that invalidates my point, thanks, but my cost control is better so my profit margin is much higher.
And it’s easy for a corporation to show zero profit on $100 million in revenue, just look at studio accounting, that doesn’t mean that individuals within that corporation aren’t getting rich. Money is being made, they’re just good at hiding it.
Yes AFTRA may have played SAG for a fool and screwed them, and yes the AMPTP may be playing both guilds against each other. The fact remains that at the end of the day SAG and the AMPTP must reach an agreement on a new MBA. In the meantime, there will be a Strike Authorization vote passed and the clear thing about that vote is that the AMPTP deserves it. SAG has been trying long and hard to bargain in good faith but the AMPTP refuses to even negotiate. Ask the WGA what happened when their strike began on the east coast? The AMPTP walked out on them while the UAW and the automakers continued to negotiate after their strike deadlines passed.
Also, who screwed who this year? As I recall, AFTRA screwed SAG. AFTRA and SAG went into negotiations together as was always the case, but AFTRA simply decided to split from SAG on the basis that each guild would be informed of each other’s progress. Soon after, AFTRA started shutting out SAG, and when the AFTRA/AMPTP agreement was reached, AFTRA avoided SAG for days before having to cough up their info. Translation, if that isn’t being screwed, I don’t know what is. On that basis, SAG can go ahead and screw AFTRA by putting in contract language saying that all scripted TV must be SAG though all current AFTRA shows will be grandfathered into the new agreement. A concession can be that SAG can allow the 17 to 24 day window to remain in new media except that all shows must run for at least two months on the internet. I am sure that Nick Counter would allow this because internet originals would be AFTRA’s area.
AR and DA want to strike. The notion that they only want the authorization as leverage is untrue. They know perfectly well that it won’t give them any or at the very least, they suspect as much. To those of you who want a strike, I suppose that’s all the more reason to vote yes. To the rest of you, your yes vote for authorization is a vote to strike.
VOTE NO!
Grippin,
The 70 million your talking about is gross profit:
“We estimate Hulu will sell between $45 million and $90 million of advertising during its first 12 months — April 2008 through March 2009. By the time it pays off its content partners, it will book between $12.5 million and $25 million in net revenue.” -Silicon Alley insider
For a major joint studio effort this can hardly be considered a great success considering the amount of money spent building and maintaining the site. By contrast the itunes store netted $570 million.
One of the main sticking points for SAG are residuals from original made for new media productions, for which there are almost no examples of a successful revenue stream in place on the internet. When was the last time you saw an original new media production on the net which was a union show???
There is a huge cost difference between someone filming themselves on their webcam for youtube and producing a union show. So the youtube revenue example is a totally different game because that is user generated content and has infinitely more users.
And no I am not a member of SAG. I am an editor who is gonna get screwed yet again by this strike if it happens.
Luzid,
I did not erroneously assert that Hulu uses banner ads exclusively as you imply. I was referring to new media websites in general. BTW Hulu does use banner type ads in addition to the spots that run before the shows. Peruse the site. At any rate to try to impugn my comments based on a semantical argument about the correct name of the ads is ridiculous.
As far as studios violating existing agreements I completely agree with you. That is shameful.
My overall point is that we are all in this industry together and that everybody should be using good judgement when bargaining less we are all out of work
No amount of ignorant and uninformed rhetoric, from unemployed and umemployable SAG members, will convince me that giving the failed leaders of our union the authorization to continue to drive SAG into irrelevancy is the right thing to do. Strike and we lose…AMPTP doesn’t care, for they well on their way to becoming strike proof. Strike and we lose and we suffocate and we become an asterisk…never again having the leverage to regain what a potential work stoppage will cause us to lose.
We are in a recession that will take the better part of Obama’s presidency to emerge from. No clear-thinking SAG member should kid themselves about what a strike will mean. Once done it will not be undone. It will be the end of the road for SAG.
Understand what a YES vote will mean. Take the time to analyze what you are willing to risk. Think not only of yourself, but the lives of thousands of family members who depend on our industry for their livlihood. This should not be a frivolous decision.
It may be the single, most important decision of you have ever made in your career.
Response to Eileen Henry’s letter. Some facts, some observations, some, uh, sanity…
Oh, and Eileen? Has Richard Masur (hubby) been brought up on charges yet? How’s that “confidentiality” thing going. Or that “non-disparagement” thing?
———————————
Why I’m voting NO on the Strike Authorization Referendum
By Eileen Henry
The Board’s responsible decision in October to try and bail out the negotiations and save face for SAG/LA leadership by involving a mediator demonstrated maturity and fiscal responsibility in an organization that has gained a reputation for knee-jerk, emotional responses. I congratulate those members of the NY Board, the Regional Branch Division and the new members of the Hollywood Board who have remained calm and clear-headed during very difficult times. These board members’ intention was for the negotiating committee to go back to the table (something that hadn’t happened since July) in a good faith attempt to finally negotiate the agreement that the WGA, DGA and AFTRA have all signed on to. Instead, the committee put DVDs back on the table ensuring the mediation would go nowhere. Even the WGA took their DVD proposal off the table before their strike. The vote in the negotiating committee to send out the Strike Authorization Referendum was not unanimous indicating that some members of the SAG team understand the realities and subsequently where the deal lies.
—————————————-
It was 97% to 3%, which equals 2 people.
———————————-
Now it’s the memberships’ turn to weigh in on this important issue. While I have never, ever voted against a strike authorization in my life I will quickly cast my no vote and hope that many members do the same. A strike authorization is a tool of leverage for your negotiator and negotiating committee but it’s crystal clear that the timing is wrong. It’s time for the membership to look behind the curtain and see the naked emperor. Only then can we clothe him and send him on his way.
Labor Relations 101: If you want to take a membership out on strike, you must be able to shut down the industry. It’s one of the reasons why the Phase One Agreement between SAG and AFTRA was created back in the 1980s – to ensure that in the event of a job action – ALL actors were on the same page. to avoid a strike.
—————————————————-
No movie production is a pretty good way to shut down the studios. As for television, 90-something percent of this work is done under SAG. Companies can’t switch a program from SAG To AFTRA. Let’s not pretend the studios and networks don’t need SAG actors.
—————————————————–
That essential leverage ended when SAG initiated a campaign early last year to end Phase One and began pummeling AFTRA relentlessly. After rescinding a motion to send a referendum to SAG members to end the Phase One Agreement, SAG/LA leadership sat down with a Soap Opera cast for 2 hours discussing how to decertify from AFTRA which is a huge breach of trust and an enormous labor no-no. It was the last straw for AFTRA resulting in SAG heading to the TV/Theatrical negotiations alone.
—————————————————–
Even the soap opera actors involved have sent letters setting this straight. and have made it crystal clear that SAG sent them to AFTRA. Yet the rumor mill continues despite the fact that a very well respected actress who was at the meeting put out the truth about what happened.
If SAG takes a strike under the TV/Theatrical Contract it will not shut down the industry. SAG actors, 44,000 of which are also AFTRA actors, will continue to work on new TV shows, as they will be produced using the AFTRA contract. It’s reported that film work has been stockpiled for a year. You might not like the message, but it is reality.
Additional leverage was gone once the WGA took a strike. As a SAG and AFTRA member I have no say in what the WGA does, but the reality is that the WGA’s 100 day strike at this very time, last year, took a huge toll on actors’ salaries. Have you recovered that lost income?
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Luckily our founders didn’t take this “I’ll worry about that later” stance, or did thousands of courageous writes that hit the streets last year. Let’s stick to the “me first” attitude.
———————————————
Any leverage we might have had left evaporated along with the DOW, the S&P and NASDAQ. We have been in a major recession for the past year, over a million jobs lost in just a few months and both President Bush and President-Elect Obama are warning the American people that the end is nowhere in sight.
——————————————
Media moguls are fairing rather well.
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The fact is SAG was last in line of all the entertainment unions to negotiate a contract with the AMPTP. Because of that fact, a “pattern” has been established. The deal to be made is to a) get jurisdiction in New Media (which WGA, DGA and AFTRA have done and SAG currently has NOT) and b) take DVDs off the table. The WGA removed their DVD proposal BEFORE they went on strike, and both the DGA and AFTRA had no DVD proposals.
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SAG never took the DVD proposal off the table. That’s just a fact.
———————————————
The simplest and cleanest way to establish jurisdiction is to get management to voluntarily recognize the union as the collective bargaining agent for that work. That is exactly what the DGA, WGA and AFTRA did, and their willingness to give on the residuals in low budget productions in New Media made this possible. SAG’s unwillingness to accept that reality is why we have been working without a contract for over five months.
———————————————–
SAG has jurisdiction in new media. Ask the 800 independent producers who have singed SAG new media contracts. And members can’t work without a SAG contract under Rule One.
And while there would be no residuals for work made in this one area of New Media for the time being, this provision will expire (”sunset“) at the end of this contract in 2011. The same is true for the DGA, WGA, and AFTRA, meaning all the unions will have to renegotiate New Media in 2011, giving us overwhelming leverage at that time. Since the current deal also requires the studios to report fully on all the New Media work they do (including budgets and creative staff) by the time we sit down to renegotiate, the unions will have a very strong case to make for changes in the contract. We can make a case that our employers are making money from our work when we have a) the jurisdiction and b) the facts. At this moment, it’s all speculative.
————————————————
Hello? Remember “I Love Lucy?” Billions lost because there were no residuals. Let’s buck up and hold on to future residuals.
————————————————-
And, even if SAG miraculously were able to achieve jurisdiction with residuals, it would do nothing more than ensure that all work would be done under an AFTRA contract, since AFTRA has been working under the deal that’s on the table since July.
————————————————
So should SAG try for lower terms? That’s the spirit!
————————————————
The question then becomes, “Is the membership prepared to strike on a concept and not actual money in your pocketbook” during a time of economic uncertainty? If we had some leverage left in our back pocket, I’d be willing to entertain the conversation but SAG’s leverage is gone.
————————————————–
Ok. So gamble with money you haven’t earned yet, hoping that you never earn it anyway? Huh?
————————————————-
As many people in our industry are fond of saying, “Timing is everything.” Our timing is off and by a long shot.
Sadly,
Eileen Henry,
Former 2nd National Vice President, Screen Actors Guild
Former NY President, Screen Actors Guild
Current Trustee, Screen Actors Guild Pension and Health Plan
———————————————–
(I hope you care more about our P & H Plan than you have you do our contract I’ve earned those benefits!)
From Thom
“One of the main sticking points for SAG are residuals from original made for new media productions, for which there are almost no examples of a successful revenue stream in place on the internet. When was the last time you saw an original new media production on the net which was a union show???”
Thom,
SAG main sticking point on original made for new media is jurisdiction not residuals. They want as much of new media to be produced union as possible. They’ve already signed 800 contracts with individual productions companies. They want to protect jobs, what’s wrong with that?
From Thom,
“There is a huge cost difference between someone filming themselves on their webcam for youtube and producing a union show. So the youtube revenue example is a totally different game because that is user generated content and has infinitely more users.”
Thom,
Here’s where residuals come in. Hulu doesn’t generate any content, it re-uses and replays network programming and feature films. It’s a joint venture between Universal and FOX to exploit re-runs of existing shows and their catalogues of old shows.
Residuals are paid as a percentage of what the producers make (profit not revenue). If they don’t make any money off of Hulu there’s no residuals to pay. Seems pretty reasonable.
If you are an IATSE editor are you happy with the tentative agreement. Do you know that half of IATSE’s health plan is funded through residuals paid to IATSE?
The issue regarding new media isn’t original new media productions. It is having all shows and movies that premiered in theaters and on television, posted on websites such as hulu.com, and not getting paid residues for them. In addition, the AMPTP already owes the WGA millions for not paying new media residues owed to that guild for new media. Plus, add to the fact that the AMPTP owes SAG millions and billions in Force Majoure payments and you have to wonder why Alan and Doug want to strike. Alan and Doug are looking out toward the future of the Screen Actors Guild. The people that vote no on Strike Authorization are only looking out for themselves, and want the SAG to screw itself.