SAG, studios to talk Saturday
Negotiations continue into next week
Friday's session lasted well into the evening though people close to the situation cautioned that a deal is far from certain.
Both sides agreed Friday morning to extend bargaining on a new feature-primetime deal until next Tuesday -- four days longer than had been planned. That extension came after SAG relented on its demand for a doubling of DVD residuals.
The SAG talks had been scheduled to conclude Friday after three weeks of no major moves by either side, but the guild's willingness to ditch its DVD proposal led to both sides deciding at mid-morning to continue talks for another three sessions -- pushing back AFTRA's negotiations for a second time after AFTRA OK'd the delay.
In a joint announcement on Friday -- the 15th day of negotiations -- SAG and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers said they had agreed to extend the talks on a day-to-basis until 5 p.m. Tuesday. The two sides said they would skip meeting on Sunday.
SAG informed the companies that it will seek an increase in the current DVD rate via employer contributions to the guild's pension and health plans. That would amount to a 15% increase in current pay from DVD residuals.
SAG's initial DVD proposal had been a non-starter for the AMPTP, which insists that those revenues are crucial to staying in the black amid soaring marketing and production costs. The AMPTP had estimated that the SAG proposal would add $500 million over the three years of the contract.
The WGA had also sought a doubled DVD rate but ditched the proposal in the last session before it went on strike last fall.
The AMPTP had been scheduled to start bargaining Monday with the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists on a new primetime deal. AFTRA issued a brief statement at mid-day Friday.
"At the joint request of the AMPTP and SAG, AFTRA has agreed to postpone the commencement of its primetime television negotiations until Wednesday, May 7, or sooner," AFTRA said. "The AFTRA Negotiating Committee has granted this second extension in order to give the current negotiations between the AMPTP and SAG more opportunity to succeed."
AFTRA's negotations had originally set to start this week but SAG and the AMPTP announced on April 23 that they had extended the SAG talks for a week.
The move to give the SAG talks more time appears designed to give negotiators another chance to launch the process of give-and-take bargaining that would lead to a deal. It comes two days after the majors went public with their frustration over SAG not having budged from its initial positions -- specifically its demands for doubling of DVD rates, hikes in basic pay rates and terms in new media that are better than what the DGA and WGA negotiated.
SAG, in its only public statement about the talks, countered that day by disputing the AMPTP's assertions, accusing the majors of not negotiating in good faith and insisting it would not negotiate in the press.
People close to the negotiations have insisted that, despite Wednesday's hostilities, the SAG talks have remained cordial and had covered a significant amount of ground. The lack of saber-rattling contrasts sharply with the venomous atmosphere that dominated most of the WGA negotiations.
With the SAG deal expiring on June 30, both sides are facing growing pressure to make a deal sooner rather than later. SAG's been told by high-profile members to cool the rehetoric; additionally, if AFTRA makes a deal first, the smaller union could then use that pact to sign new series in areas of shared jurisdiction.
AFTRA split off from negotiating with SAG in March in the culmination of long-running series of disputes as actors on "The Bold and the Beautiful" attempted to decertify from AFTRA.
SAG hasn't yet announced a strike authorization vote for its 120,000 members. The guild's constitution requires that 75% of those voting approve the authorization for SAG to go on strike.
As for the companies, a SAG strike would immediately halt movie production and inject even more uncertainty into the entertainment business. Major studios are no longer greenlighting new features until a SAG agreement's in place; Hollywood still has not fully recovered from the 100-day writers strike; and showbiz is facing both a recession and the migration of TV viewers to the Internet.
