It was a key victory for the double strikes from Hollywood 2023: a bonus that promised to allow workers to share some of the tastes of successful series and streaming films.
After a six -month -old cumulative work stoppage and entertainment work discussion points, writers Guild and Sag -Aftra – as well as retroactively, the editors’ guild – wrote additional residues beyond existing payments in their Agreements with media companies for TOP for -Roded Projects. For WGA members, the new bonus structure, which entered into force on January 1, can vary from $ 9,000 to $ 16,400 for a television episode or $ 40,500 for a functionality with a budget of more than 30 Millions of dollars, according to Hollywood Payroll Services Wrapbook. “We opened a new source of income,” said Fran Drescher of his union’s disposal in November 2023. “What was counting is that we entered another pocket.”
So now, after a little over a year with the bonus structure, do Guild members harvest the awards? Until now, the answer seems to be a qualified yes – even if few projects seem to have cut and a little baffles on the size of the payments. During the first half of 2024, a handful of original streaming shows and films reached the contractual threshold for bonus payments, and several others that were presented later in the year are likely to join them, according to representatives of the guild.
Payments have started to be spent and guilds say that media companies have given their data in time. When the agreement was concluded, Sag-Aftra said that the streaming bonus would bring up to $ 40 million a year in additional residues for the actors. They do not yet have the receipts. Some union representatives say that it is too early in the process of knowing how these bonuses will give the union members each year, because the projects that have been presented in the last months of 2024 may not pay a bonus before 2025.
“The people who receive them appreciate the significant amount (of money) and that they are really a new source of income for this type of project,” explains Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, executive director of Sag-Aftra and chief negotiator. “That said, I think people will take time to get used to how it works.” The president of WGA West Meredith Stiehm echoes these feelings and notes that she has only heard of any problem linked to the media giants relying their streaming data.
The streaming bonus in the WGA contract calls on all the writers credited on a film or a series to receive a 50% bonus above their fixed residue – totaling about $ 9,000 for a “high budget” streaming program if A writer is credited with history and teleplaving – if a season of a series or a film reaches the equivalent of 20% of national subscribers of a platform during the first 90 days of exit from project. To determine if a show or a film responds to this threshold, the number of “views” (hours of total visualization divided in execution time) is divided by the number of subscribers to this platform, and if the result is greater than 0.2, the bonus comes into play. After the first 90 days of exit, the banners have 60 days to report their data and pay bonuses to eligible projects. SAG-AFTRA and the DGA adopted the same formula to determine bonus payments.
None of the guild representatives The Hollywood Reporter According to him, specific projects that have qualified for bonus payments, citing confidentiality agreements with media companies concerning streaming data, would be appointed. Stiehm noted that the WGA had paid bonuses to writers on projects from Netflix, Prime Video and Peacock in early December. Netflix Avatar: the last Airbender And Griselda would be among the projects that qualified for bonus payments. Netflix and Sag-Aftra refused to comment.
SAG-AFTRA paid bonuses to the actors on the shows of the beginning of 2024 and deals with other payments, shared the union in December. But the information was slim in the field concerning one of the curiosities of the Sag-Aftra contract-a so-called “Robin Hood Fund” which takes 25 percent of the bonuses grouped and made them for the distribution between a larger group From streaming artists, not just those on high shows.
The relative silence of the union on this major pillar of the end of the end of 2023 caused frustration and calls answers. At least one union committee advances a resolution to share more information with members on the union streaming bonus. At a meeting of the National Council in October, according to two people who were present, it was clear for the participants that the union had not yet settled how the 25% of bonus funds will be distributed more widely among the streaming artists.
The ODD Union in this story is the Guild of America directors, who did not argue in the streaming success payment in its negotiations in 2023. The union, known to do exhaustive research before negotiations and adopt a less conflictual approach With studios, was rather focused on foreign residues as a field of growth. “With regard to residues, during the last series of negotiations, our priority was to treat the global programs market that was designed for SVOD. The problem we are trying to solve was that the domestic market is widely saturated, and growth will take place in exhibition outside the United States and Canada, “said a union representative.
The DGA did exactly that, merchant a residual structure of foreign streaming based on the number of global subscribers; The union said that the change would result in a 76% increase in the foreign residue for the best streaming services. (WGA and SAG-AFTRA have also won this world residue focused on subscribers in their contracts, and the leaders of the two unions noted that these increases add considerably to the income of the members.)
But the DGA secured the WGA success bonus retroactively, announcing the addition to its members in January, months after concluding its initial talks with the studios. The streaming bonus was “never, in our opinion, a major economic element and it was not going to generate a lot of income, at least not now,” explains the representative of the DGA. “But it’s a great bump for our members working on the small number of projects that qualify.”
Some representatives of talents who spoke to THR represent the bonuses with regard to anticlimactics. “For an individual writer in a higher show, this means a total of approximately $ 9,000 in additional residues,” said a higher agent. “In total, for all writers, it is significant money. For an individual, he does not pay for private school or for a mortgage. It is a small movement divided on a large pool of writers. »»
Current streaming success bonuses could also change in the future – after all, the guilds will have another series of negotiations with the AMPTP in 2026. “I think we will come back as part of our preparation for the next series of negotiations “, Crabtree -Illand said.
Stiehm de la WGA considers current streaming metric as a starting point. “I think this streaming provision has been expected for a long time, and people feel good,” she said. “We feel ambitious to improve it.”
