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« WGA Post-Strike Watch: News About Returning Shows
A Tentative Deal Is Reached; Prez Gives Thumbs-up, But Will Members Agree?
The WGA has reached a tentative deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. (Have you ever heard 16 such wonderful words?) At 3 am Saturday morning — following all-night talks — the union's East and West Coast presidents zapped off emails (cited here by United Hollywood) to their membership stating that a deal has been made through 2011 that "protects a future in which the Internet becomes the primary means of both content creation and delivery."
Said offer (summarized here at WGA.org) is being detailed to WGA East members Saturday in New York, with their West Coast brethren to get the lowdown this evening. If all goes well, each coast's board of directors will confab Sunday to formally endorse the contract. In that scenario, scribes could be back at their keyboards as early as Monday, though WGA East president Michael Winship told reporters on Saturday, "There are several different alternative ways that the board and council could determine how this should be dealt with."
Will the "final" terms fly with the guild at large? According to DeadlineHollywoodDaily, one insider described Friday's briefing of WGA strike captains as "quite a vocal meeting," claiming that "support was way less than unanimous." Another source, however, counters that "there was not all this dissention," and calls the proposal "a good deal."
Winship himself said prior to the WGA East's New York gathering, "It's a good deal" though not a "done" one. Still, he added, "I will be recommending it to our membership."
Despite pushing from leadership, however, will members take the deal? Inside Saturday's New York meeting, a source tells DeadlineHollywood that the heat's still on, with the source of the tension stemming from the "take it or leave it" stance of the AMPTP. Some members want pushback, with a 48-hour delay to "think about" the deal, which stipulates writers going back to work immediately. Yet, the observer said, there's a sense in the room that, while the deal isn't perfect, it's "good enough."
Further, a WGA strike captain, in an email told members Saturday that a key clause of the deal, the Favored Nations Clause, is not in the final documents, in contrast to what some think Peter Chernin promised on Friday. The clause would ensure that the writers would benefit from any improvements that SAG might make in their own upcoming contract negotiations. While "this deal is likely as good as we'll get," the captain wrote, but "without this clause ... IT IS NOT COMPLETE [sic]."
Key among the new pact's points of interest that are in writing:
• In the third year of the contract, writers would receive two percent of the distributor's gross on streamed content (a hike from the $1,200-ish payment scribes will get in the first two years). However, as the DGA does, the WGA has a 17-day window on all streamed content, meaning that studios can stream for free during that period.
• With regard to Internet sales, writers will get 0.36 percent of the distributor's gross receipts for the first 100,000 downloads of a television program and the first 50,000 downloads of a feature. After that, they'll bank 0.7 percent of distributor's gross receipts for TV shows and 0.65 percent for feature films.
• Ad-supported streaming of TV shows will net the writers two percent of distributors' gross receipts a year after the initial streaming window is closed.
Until the ink dries, I won't say it outloud, but I will quietly type it: "Yippee!"
Check back later and throughout the weekend for updates. Believe us, once the strike is truly over, the TVGuide.com homepage will make sure that you know it!
More WGA strike coverage:
• After the Strike: When Your Shows Will Return
• Michael Eisner Tells CNBC, "The Strike Is Over"
• Deal Could Be in Front of WGA by Friday
• WGA to Weigh New Deal on Saturday; Could Return to Work Soon After
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Feb 9, 2008 10:18 AM
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I'll second your quiet "yippie!" This almost seems to good to be true. I keep expecting the carpet to get yanked out from under us fans. **crosses fingers** Let's hope someone doesn't throw a wrench into the works.
Please let us know when the ink is dry! 
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Feb 9, 2008 10:31 AM
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Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Feb 9, 2008 10:32 AM
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Finally! Fingers crossed!!
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Feb 9, 2008 10:53 AM
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please keep in mind this "deal" is not worth the paper it's printed on until the general WGA membership votes today.
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Feb 9, 2008 11:05 AM
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well, let's hope next year's season can be salvaged (including renewing FNL!!!)
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Feb 9, 2008 11:15 AM
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Yes Yes Yes
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Feb 9, 2008 11:16 AM
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“As such, we believe that continuing to strike now will not bring sufficient gains to outweigh the potential risks and that the time has come to accept this contract and settle the strike. Much has been achieved, and while this agreement is neither perfect nor perhaps all that we deserve for the countless hours of hard work and sacrifice, our strike has been a success.”
This is what WGA West president Patric Verrone said... He's practically saying - accept the deal, end the strike!
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Feb 9, 2008 12:07 PM
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Is 2% a good deal? I can't wait for this strike to be over! I'm ready to watch some TV! But I am kinda glad this strike came now, since it's my last semester of college and I'm able to be more productive without something to watch every night.
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Feb 9, 2008 12:08 PM
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It's incorrect to say that the WGA membership will be voting this weekend. They will NOT. But if the WGA board believes that the membership will approve the contract when they do vote (normally 10 days from now but could be 48 hours if a provision of the WGA constitution is invoked), the board can call for a halt to the strike in their scheduled Sunday meeting and people can go back to work beginning Monday. It really all depends on what comes out at the membership meetings today and tonight.
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Feb 9, 2008 12:12 PM
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At 3 am Saturday morning (god bless morning people!), the union's East and West Coast presidents zapped off emails
God bless morning people??? They were working all night to get this deal done, thanks to last minute shenanigans on the AMPTP side. Were you up all night following it? I know I gave up at 2:30 am and went to bed, but the negotiating teams stayed up us long as it took.
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Feb 9, 2008 1:08 PM
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"Is 2% a good deal?"
It's about what they expected. But the main issue as far as I know, and what may be a real dealbreaker, is the 17 day free promotional period the studios are asking for. Basically, the networks want to be able to stream full length, ad-supported episodes online without having to pay the writers anything for the first 17 days. So basically they could stream an episode online for 17 days and not have to pay the writers anything out of whatever profits they make in those 17 days. We'll have to wait and see if they're okay with that. I'm not sure if I would be.
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Feb 9, 2008 1:21 PM
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That 17-day window is what bothers me. Most online streams are within the first week after the episode's original broadcast, definitely the first two weeks...basically writers are getting leftovers when it comes to online streaming. Writers with shows with less interested fans or shows that are slower to catch on are going to be paid more than writers with shows that are hits and are watched in the first 17 days. Not that I don't want them to take the deal, but this seems more like a token than a significant improvement.
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Feb 9, 2008 1:49 PM
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About Effing Time.
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Feb 9, 2008 2:30 PM
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Wow, all that walking the line and this is what you get out of it? How many people lost their jobs, careers, homes, etc. for the same the same deal the directors got? Where's the sympathy strike? Where's animation? Where's reality? Where's DVD's?
I wonder if ol' gollysunshine and the other WGA hardliners feel like these past months were worth it, seeing as how Verrone and Co. sold her out in the end for a deal that is no different than what could have been reached with no strike.
In the end, the union realized that you can resist market forces only so much. What a terribly costly lesson.
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Feb 9, 2008 2:38 PM
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