Writers and producers reach tentative deal
According to the Writers Guild of America website, the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have ironed out the details of a tentative deal. The next step toward ending the writers' strike: The Guild's board will present the terms to its membership today, followed by an official vote to ratify the contract. Some of the details of the tentative deal:
-- In the third year of the contract, writers will receive 2 percent of distributor's gross receipts for ad-supported streaming of television after a promotional window.
-- On permanent downloads, writers will get .36 percent of distributor's gross receipts for the first 100,000 downloads of a television program and the first 50,000 of a feature film. After that, pay is increased to .7 percent and .65 percent, respectively.
-- The agreement defines what promotional use is. In a nutshell, clips can be "used without payment to promote theatrical, television or new media exhibition if the clip contains 'tune-in,' rental or purchase information." But writers do get paid for the use of clips if the "primary purpose of the exhibition is to permit viewing of archived clips," as on, say, www.thedailyshow.com.
-- Networks will consult the showrunner when a commercial product is to be integrated into the storyline of an episode of a dramatic series. (This has been somewhat of an important issue for the WGA and the Screen Actors Guild, as they have taken the issue up with the FCC in recent months.)
In an e-mail sent to Guild members, WGA West president Patric A. Verrone and WGA East president Michael Winship acknowledged that while the tentative deal ''is neither perfect nor perhaps all that we deserve,'' it ''establishes the principle that, 'When they get paid, we get paid.''' In their e-mail, Verrone and Winship also urged WGA members to vote to ratify the contract and end the four-month strike: ''An ongoing struggle against seven, multinational media conglomerates, no matter how successful, is exhausting, taking an enormous personal toll on our members and countless others. As such, we believe that continuing to strike now will not bring sufficient gains to outweigh the potential risks and that the time has come to accept this contract and settle the strike.''
A spokesperson for the AMPTP had no immediate comment on the tentative deal.
Click here for a summary of the tentative deal's terms, and stay tuned for more on EW.com...
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