Hollywood performers get streaming incentives under a new deal when the SAG-AFTRA strike ends

 Hollywood performers get streaming incentives under a new deal when the SAG-AFTRA strike ends

The deal with Netflix, Walt Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, along with additional Alliance of Motion Picture as well as Television Producers (AMPTP) members will now go to union members for ratification.

AFTRA-SAG Following the conclusion of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) strike in Los Angeles on November 10, President Fran Drescher speaks at a news conference, accompanied by union members and Duncan Crabtree-Ireland (C-R), SAG-AFTRA's executive director and main negotiator. (Photo: AFP)

As part of the preliminary labor agreement agreed between the SAG-AFTRA actors union and major Hollywood studios, streaming platforms where will pay bonuses of around $40 million annually. Union officials announced this on November 10 after their board approved the accord.

86% of SAG-AFTRA's national board supported the proposed three-year deal, which the union said was worth more over $1 billion during that time.

The deal with Netflix, Walt Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, along with other Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers members (AMPTP) is currently up for vote among union members.

According to principal negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, voting is anticipated to conclude in early December.

According to SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher, the union has made progress toward its objective of obtaining a larger income share from streaming services for performers. Companies accepted additional incentive payouts even though they had previously rejected plans that included a per-subscriber charge.

At a news conference, Drescher said, "We created a new source of income. "We entered a different pocket."

Actors on the most popular streaming series will get 75% of the $40 million pool, according to the rules of the agreement. A fund that supports performers on other streaming series will get the remaining 25%.

The SAG-AFTRA board's approval of the accord was welcomed by the AMPTP.

The association released a statement saying, "We are also grateful that everyone in the sector has enthusiastically returned to work."

In addition to the additional bonus payment from streaming services, the deal raises the minimum compensation for entry-level performers and places restrictions on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in filmmaking.

According to Crabtree-Ireland, one of the concerns settled in the last hours of talks was AI.

Before utilizing an actor's picture to make a digital duplicate, the studio must get their permission and provide a detailed explanation, he added. The remuneration to the actor would be commensurate with the kind of labor the computerized duplicate is doing on screen.

According to Crabtree-Ireland, the contract also shields background performers from unapproved usage of their digital copies.

A "very serious fight" was sparked by the use of generative AI to produce "synthetic, fake performers," according to Crabtree-Ireland.

As per the terms of the contract, firms are required to get the approval of performers, even if many actors are involved, whose face traits are used to produce a synthetic performance.

The union was granted the authority to bargain for payment on behalf of the actor whose characteristics were used in the production of that digital performer, and the studios are now required to notify the union whenever they intend to employ generative AI to generate a synthetic performer.

On November 8, a settlement was achieved that terminated the second of two concurrent strikes in the US entertainment sector, which caused over $6 billion in damages to the Californian economy.

The first was organized by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and lasted 148 days. It started in May. After 118 days of work stoppage in July, SAG-AFTRA called off its strike this week.