Negotiations between Hollywood studios and the actors broke down on October 11th and the strike now threatens to continue into next year.
Lucas Shaw for Bloomberg News:
“We had very productive talks going,” [Netflix co-CEO Ted] Sarandos said. “What happened last night is they introduced this levy on subscribers on top of this deal.”
The studios and guilds have been debating ways to reward talent for successes in streaming. The writers and studios created a performance-based bonus model where scribes would be paid extra if their shows were watched by a certain number of viewers.
The actors rejected that idea. They initially pushed for a share of all streaming revenue from major platforms. They have since revised that to a per-subscriber payment from each platform.
“It just felt like a bridge too far to add this deep into the negotiation,” Sarandos said.
The Screen Actors Guild objected to Sarandos’ characterization. President Fran Drescher said it was “unfair” that the studio chiefs walked out of the latest meeting. She also said the studios need to change their position on AI.
MacDailyNews Take: At this rate, we really hope we can get “Severance” season two by 2030.
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Severance was such a great show, and ended on a clever cliffhanger.
Let’s hope we get to see season 2 well before 2030, or we won’t see Foundation Season 3 before 2030, either!
“The actors rejected that idea. They initially pushed for a share of all streaming revenue from major platforms. They have since revised that to a per-subscriber payment from each platform.”
Both initial and revised demands seem unreasonable. If their show is never watched they still get paid? Streaming services have ‘viewed’ counts so it would be fair to base any streaming payments on that number.
They know that most of what they’re pushing out is trash and that they won’t get paid if it’s paid on a by-view basis. Musicians have to deal with this method of revenue so why shouldn’t the Hollywood hacks? Write well and get rewarded. Seems simple to me.
A lot of the an actors get thousands of dollars or a million an episode. They are being greedy. The actors are letting down the fans who watch thier shows.
That’s B.S.! Most actors do NOT get paid a lot of money and rely on the “residules” to get by. Likewise most actors rely on a non-acting job to supplement their income. That doesn’t sound like some rich bastard asking for more money. It sounds like a person who doesn’t have a lot of money.
The highly successful actors you see on the picket lines are supporting poorer actors out of solidarity not for extra money.
Please do a bit of research before you make outlandish claims. GRRR!
Public disclosure: I was a IR/HR specialist for 30 years and practiced and taught in that field.
Applause!