The union reached provisional agreement, still subject to member ratification, with Hollywood’s top studios and streamers on Sunday night, Sep. 24.
Restrictions on the use of A.I., minimum staffing in television writers’ rooms and a viewership-based streaming bonus.
Those are some of the deal points in the WGA tentative three-year contract deal with studios and streamers, the details of which were released to union members on Tuesday. The highly anticipated pact also includes provisions that enshrine a second “step” for screenwriter deals, higher foreign residuals and annual minimum pay increases of 5 percent, 4 percent and 3.5 percent over the course of the contract.
When it comes to rapidly developing A.I. technology, the union secured protections against A.I. penning or rewriting original material under the MBA or being used as “source material” to adapt. Writers can still use A.I. as a tool if the company they are working for allows it; however, they cannot be required to use it and companies must disclose if they are giving writers any A.I.-generated material during the writing process. In addition, “The WGA reserves the right to assert that exploitation of writers’ material to train AI is prohibited by MBA or other law,” the union stated in its summary of the 2023 MBA.
One important and sticky priority for the union this negotiations cycle was attaching compensation to the success of streaming shows — the union proposed to “establish a viewership-based residual — in addition to existing fixed residual — to reward programs with greater viewership” and to “require transparency regarding program views.” Its compromise with studios was establishing a new residual that would reward projects that “are viewed by 20% or more of the service’s domestic subscribers in the first 90 days of release, or in the first 90 days in any subsequent exhibition year.”
Made-for-SVOD films and series would incur a bonus of 50 percent of its fixed domestic and foreign residual once it hit that benchmark, resulting in bonuses like $9,031 for a half-hour episode on major streaming services and $40,500 for a streaming feature with an over $30 million budget.
Streaming Transparency
The compromise was limited: The union will have confidential access to “the total number of hours streamed, both domestically and internationally, of self-produced high budget streaming programs (Netflix original series)” and “may share information with the membership in aggregated form.” In other words, there will be somewhat more transparency, but the streaming services aren’t exactly opening up their troves of data for the public.
The WGA entered the strike asking for cumulative 16 percent increase in residuals over the three-year MBA and wound up with 12.5 percent.
The union additionally secured an increase in the employer contribution to the union’s health fund, based on reportable earnings, of 0.5 percent in the second year of the contract (going from 11.5 to 12 percent).
The union did not secure commitment from the AMPTP that would allow union members to refuse to cross other unions’ picket lines without consequences, as they asked in August, as SAG-AFTRA remains out on strike.
The three-year contract is still subject to a ratification vote from members, and can go into effect if majority of eligible voters support the deal.
If they do not, union negotiators will have to go back to the bargaining table to hash out a pact that members can support.
The ratification vote for the contract will take place between October 2 and October 9.
