The issues dividing the WGA and Hollywood studios – The Hollywood Reporter

Residuals based on audience, artificial intelligence and minimum staff for the writers room are some of the issues the Writers Guild of America wanted to tackle that weren’t going anywhere with the Alliance of Film and Television Producers, according to a document released by the writers Monday night.

The proposals, and the studios’ alleged response, came after the AMPTP and WGA ended negotiations on Monday night without a deal, with the WGA then calling for a strike to begin on Tuesday.

According to the document, revealing for the first time the exact nature of what the WGA was asking for, there was some movement on issues such as staff writers’ script fees and an increase in the scope cap, but other problems proved non-starters. (The Hollywood Reporter asked AMPTP to comment on their purported responses as noted in the document.)

For streaming projects, the WGA requested viewership-based residuals, in addition to their existing fixed residuals, “to reward programs with larger viewership,” according to the document. This would require viewership transparency, something streamers have proven unwilling to do, even for the stars of the shows and movies themselves. The WGA said the AMPTP rejected the proposal and refused to make a counter.

Concerns about AI writing support have also reportedly been glossed over by the studios. The WGA wanted to regulate the use of AI and wanted to ensure that AI could not be used to write or rewrite literary material, or as source material. The AMPTP rejected the guild’s proposals, retaliating by proposing annual meetings to discuss technological advances, the WGA said.

The features side showed give-and-takes, but the sides were still far apart on Monday night. The WGA wants movies with a budget over $12 million to receive their theatrical terms. The film companies countered that the films should cost $40 million or more and were willing to raise upfront compensation by 9%, although there were “no residual enhancements” offered, the WGA said.

The guild also wanted a guaranteed second writing ‘step’, or payout point, for feature film deals, while producers rejected that idea and instead said they were ready to set up a meeting for them. executives and producers in order to educate them on writers’ “gratuitous labor concerns”. .”

“Studios are more about greed than keeping people working,” observed a writer-producer upon reading the proposals.

On the television side, the WGA and AMPTP are far removed from the guild’s efforts to “preserve” writers’ rooms with a proposal for a minimum of six writers per room and that number is growing as the episode order does this with an additional staff member added for every two episodes with a maximum of 12 per room. The proposal would effectively eliminate writers seeking to write every episode of a series without the benefit of a room. The studios rejected the WGA’s proposals and refused to counter, the guild said.

One of the other central issues at play in negotiations is the proliferation of so-called “mini-rooms” that feature a handful of writers telling stories ahead of a formal series order, which is not always a guarantee. . The guild is looking for guarantees of 10 consecutive weeks of work that include sending writers to the set. The latter was once a no-brainer for streaming, but has fallen out of favor with studios and streamers alike given the added costs of staging writers. Some showrunners, like former WGA negotiating committee member Shawn Ryan (Netflix’s The Night Officer), successfully asked streamers to send writers to the set as they seek to help shape the next generation.

Early in the negotiations, many enlightened writers and agents were concerned about “reach,” which is the time it takes to create scripted series. The sweeping protections would ensure that writers are fairly compensated for programming that can take years to complete, a trend that is increasingly common in Peak TV’s era of lavish premium content. The guild offers a guaranteed minimum staff 10 consecutive weeks of work and that writers are entitled to at least three weeks per episode and that half of the minimum staff be employed by production and one writer employed by post-production. The studios rejected the proposals and refused to counter.

“They’re very, very far apart,” said a showrunner with multiple series spread across broadcast and streaming platforms. THR after reviewing the proposals.

The WGA said its proposals would net writers about $429 million a year, with AMPTP’s offer of about $86 million a year, 48% of which comes from raising minimums (salary floor ). The WGA offered minimum increases of 6%/5%/5% over the full three-year contract period, including residuals. Studios countered with 4%/3%/2%, including a one-time increase in residual bases of 2% or 2.5%.

However, progress has been made over the weeks of negotiations, according to the WGA: The tentative deals include screenwriters receiving script fees on top of their weekly salary, an increase in the scope cap from $400,000 to $450,000 $ and extending those protections to limited-edition writers. The guild also offered free “promotional” streaming for broadcast series.

In its own statement Monday night, the AMPTP said sticking points in the negotiations included the WGA’s push for a minimum writers’ room size and a minimum length of a writers’ room. These proposals “would require a company to staff a show with a certain number of writers for a specified period of time, whether necessary or not,” AMPTP said.

The Alliance added that it presented a “comprehensive proposal” for pay increases and residual streams on Sunday night, just a day before the writers’ contract expired. “The AMPTP has also indicated to the WGA that it is prepared to improve this offer, but is unwilling to do so due to the magnitude of other proposals still on the table on which the Guild continues. to insist,” the band said.