Negotiators for writers and studios returned to the bargaining table Tuesday, but they remained far from reaching a new deal that would end a strike now in its fifth week, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The snail’s pace of the talks, which have been whipsawed in recent days by reports of breakthroughs only to be set back by mutual recriminations, underscores the complex issues surrounding the big divide: How writers are to be paid for the use of their work on the Internet.
It also points up the sometimes conflicting agendas of the major Hollywood studios and their corporate parents, which have different priorities based on the emphasis of their various businesses. That, in turn, slows down the ability to reach a quick unanimity, as required by the rules governing the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
On Tuesday, the Writers Guild of America responded to last week’s studio proposal on streaming shows online with a tiered compensation system based on how often a show is viewed. Streaming is the free delivery of programming online.
Writers rejected the studios’ proposal of a single fixed payment of less than $250 a year for reuse of an hourlong program. Instead, the guild proposed a sliding scale by which in the first year they would fetch $632 for the first 100,000 views, with pay rates increasing at each 100,000 views thereafter. After the first year, writers would get a residual based on 2.5% of the revenue collected by the show distributor.
The writers proposal prompted detailed discussions Tuesday with studio negotiators, though they didn’t result in any resolution. The parties also did not discuss any of the other issues that divide them, including how much writers should be paid for shows that are sold online or created for the Internet.
Nonetheless, two people close to the guild’s negotiating committee said they felt encouraged. “It felt like the beginning of a negotiation,” said one. The alliance said it was studying the WGA’s proposal and “look[ed] forward” to continuing negotiations, set to resume today.
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