The DGA (Director’s Guild of America) and the AMPTP (The Producers Association) have quickly come to a new contract agreement! The new deal includes:
The Directors Guild deal contains several points addressing how directors should be compensated for work in new media, including provisions that essentially double the rate now paid for Internet downloads of movies and TV shows, the union said.
It also sets new “residual” fees for the reuse of material in the form of advertising-supported online streaming and video clips, and requires studios to work with union directors on content produced specially for the Internet, the union said.
Both the directors and the producers seem to be thrilled with the new deal, and amazingly got the deal done in just 5 days of official negotiations. The focus now squarely goes back on the Producers and Writers negotiations.
So clearly the Producers are willing to deal on the issues of new media and residuals… so what’s the hold up with the writers negotiations? How soon will these two sides get back to the table? Will the Producers offered something similar to the writers? Will the writers take off their demands for control over reality TV and the right to sympathy strike?
The producers have finally gotten off their asses and extended an invitation to continue “informal” talks with the WGA. The WGA says they want some time to analyze the DGA deal and see if it makes sense to them or not, which is understandable. I just hope, either way, this gets settled soon.
