After a near record-breaking 148 days on strike, the Writers Guild of America have finally agreed a new deal with the Hollywood studios (including streamers like Apple). The guild described the deal as “exceptional”, and it is expected to easily pass when members vote next week. Even before it is officially ratified, though, the labor strike has been lifted and work in Hollywood can resume.
At least, writing duties can restart. Filming cannot pick up again until the Hollywood studios agree a new deal with the Screen Actors Guild, and thus end the ongoing actors strike. The gains reached in the new WGA deal are expected to serve as a template for the fresh SAG negotiations, which could begin as soon as next week.
The deal between the writers and the AMPTP (an alliance of the Hollywood studios including Disney, Warner Bros, Paramount, Netflix, Apple, Amazon and more) sets out contract terms for the next three years. You can find more detailed information about the new contract on the WGA website.
It includes significant minimum pay increases, protections against the use of AI tools, compensation and guarantees for writer’s employed at pre-green light development stages, and more. Perhaps most importantly, as the business migrates more and more to digital streaming rather than a broadcast TV model, this contract includes a bonus payment schedule for high-budget streaming video.
If a big-budget streaming show or movie is viewed by more than 20% of a streaming service’s subscriber base within the first 90 days of it being released, the writer will get a bonus equal to 50% of their standard residual payment. This equates to approximately a $16,000 bonus for a one-hour TV episode or $40,000 for a film.
The guild was pushing for more public data transparency about how many and who is watching their programs, but this is a point the streamers did not concede. The guild will confidentially receive breakdowns of domestic and international viewing statistics for original series, but is not allowed to publish these for public consumption. It can only release limited ‘aggregate’ viewing data.
For Apple, a deal with the writer’s is a major step in being able to restart its content pipeline for Apple TV+, and get production up and running for major titles like the (already severely delayed) second season of Severance. However, it’s unclear exactly when that will be.
Even if a Screen Actor’s Guild deal is reached quickly, the calendar then hits the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday periods. Productions must also jockey and organize around availability of sets, actors and crews — with all the various studios fighting for priority for the projects in their respective backlogs.
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