AFTRA and AMPTP SIGN DEAL SAG NOW ON HOTSEAT

AFTRA and the AMPTP have announced agreement on a new primetime contract that, per Daily Variety, ” will ease — but not eliminate — the town’s fears of an actors strike.”

The announcement of the AFTRA deal comes as SAG is scheduled to reconvene meetings with AMPTP this morning.

Per Daily Variety:

The deal includes new media provisions similar to those in the DGA and WGA deals covering programs streamed over the web and downloads of TV shows and sets the same thresholds for coverage of made-for-the-internet programs. As with the director and writer deals, the AFTRA pact did not include any gains in DVD residuals.

And AFTRA also said the pact retains actors’ consent over online use of clips, an issue that had emerged as a dominant concern at the negotiations. Both SAG and AFTRA had opposed the AMPTP’s proposal that actors agree to drop the consent requirement for online clips, in order to establish a viable business model that could compete with the massive levels of pirated clips on the web.

AFTRA said the pact calls for it and the companies to “develop a mechanism” by which performers can provide or withhold consent for non-promotional use of clips from TV libraries. For programs produced after July 1, companies can bargain for consent for the right to use clips at the time of original employment.

“This is another groundbreaking agreement for AFTRA,” said AFTRA national president Roberta Reardon in a statement. “In addition to achieving meaningful gains in compensation and working conditions for performers, it also establishes AFTRA jurisdiction in the dynamic area of new media and it preserves performers’ consent for use of excerpts of traditional TV shows in new media.

Read the entire Daily Variety article here.

The Hollywood Reporter version of the AFTRA and AMPTP agreement can be found here.

In a statement, the AMPTP said both sides were “challenged during these talks to find a way to fairly and sensibly tailor our industry’s new media framework to meet the needs of actors. As a result of compromise and creativity by both parties, we reached an agreement that makes the new media framework work for all actors.”

Now that AFTRA has come to an agreement, SAG is expected to start up its negotiations again with the AMPTP. Talks were suspended May 6 after both sides were unable to reach an agreement and AFTRA was slated to begin its formal negotiations the following after it had twice postponed bargaining to let SAG continue.

“We now look forward to the resumption of talks with SAG, to building on the foundation laid during our first round of SAG talks, and to reaching an agreement that will prevent another harmful and unnecessary strike,” the AMPTP said.