2023-09-23 11:00:00
After almost a month of radio silence. studios and screenwriters resumed their talks on sharing streaming revenue and regulating the use of artificial intelligence on Wednesday. They announced that they would continue their negotiations this Saturday, September 23.
Delays for theatrical film releases, additional delays on the schedules of upcoming series on streaming platforms, postponed ceremonies but… the historic Hollywood strike could soon come to an end. Studios and screenwriters will continue their negotiations this Saturday, September 23, announced their union, after reporting progress which suggests a desire to put an end to this social movement that has been paralyzing the sector for nearly five months.
Negotiators from both camps “will meet again on Saturday,” announced the WGA (Writers Guild of America) in a message sent Friday evening to the 11,500 industry leaders it represents. “We continue to work to obtain an agreement that the writers deserve,” recalled the union.
The studios and the WGA resumed their talks on Wednesday on sharing revenue from streaming and regulating the use of artificial intelligence, after almost a month of radio silence. Enough to bring a breath of hope to observers of the sector, who see several signs of progress.
The big names around the table
Starting with the meeting around the table for three days, big names from Disney (Bob Iger), Netflix (Ted Sarandos), Warner Bros (David Zaslav) and NBCUniversal (Donna Langley), according to the American specialist press.
Another encouraging sign from this new round of negotiations, the WGA and the employers, represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), published a joint press release Wednesday evening to announce the extension of the talks. This unusual approach raises hopes that an agreement is imminent. At the very least, it indicates a reduction in the gap between the two parties, after 144 days of strike which virtually brought the industry to a standstill.
Since mid-July, actors have joined this historic movement, which is paralyzing the vast majority of film and television series production in the United States. With major economic consequences. At the beginning of September, the Financial Times reported a study by the Milken Institute which estimated the cost of this double social movement, unseen since 1960, at five billion dollars for the Californian economy.
Streaming et IA
Screenwriters and actors share similar demands. The sharing of revenues linked to streaming remains the crux of the matter: they want to be able to earn much more when one of their films or series is a hit on a platform, instead of receiving a lump sum payment, generally quite low, regardless of popularity. from the program.
The two professions also want safeguards against the use of artificial intelligence: actors fear seeing their image or voice cloned, while screenwriters fear that AI could be used for scripts and that they are paid less, or that their scenarios are used to train robots.
Even in the event of an agreement between studios and screenwriters, the actors would remain on strike. Their union, SAG-AFTRA, has not spoken to the employers since mid-July. But according to the specialized press, a compromise with the industry’s feathers would pave the way for an end to the actors’ strike.
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