By Elizabeth BJ
Following up with the writers’ and actors' strikes news, after months and months, the AMPTP finally reached the Writers Guild to start the negotiations, which might result in a contract for the next three years at least.
The tentative agreement was announced on Sunday 24th September with no further details on what it will state, probably because the members of the WGA had to vote before accepting the possible contract.
Some experts speculate that the fact that the SAGA-AFTRA was holding a strike at the same time as the WGA was one of the main reasons studios had to give in and start negotiations. Their budgets for next year were already reflecting the consequences of not having actors, writers, and other creatives working right now, so they had to start talking, in order for them to start working.
What the writers will get seems to answer their preoccupations, as it is known that the production houses and distributors of AMPTP will re-work the payment of writers, based on the views on streaming services, meaning that now the writers for the most popular shows on each platform will get more revenue, a payment system that responds to the standard set by traditional tv compensation model.
Also, in the agreement the production houses will agree to protect the intellectual property of the writers by ensuring that they will not feed any Artificial Intelligence or programs alike with their writing, as it was speculated that they would start feeding these programs with certain writers works, in order to produce “screenplays” in the writer’s styles.
Even though these are the most important features of the new contracts, these won’t be the only ways in which the AMPTP will provide their writers with better work conditions, from the developing stages of scripted projects, with regulations for writers' room written from the initial contract, to the aftermath of the same, as the viewership statistic streaming platforms get will be accessible for the developers.
Members of the WGA will vote on the possible new contract in the first week of October.
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