WGA/AMPTP 2023 Upcoming Negotiations: A Quick Summary

Mar 8

There’s a lot going on, so here’s a super quick, super digestible breakdown of the upcoming WGA negotiations with the AMPTP.

The Basics

The current agreement between the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP) ends May 1, 2023.

The negotiations between WGA and the AMPTP are scheduled to start March 20, 2023.

The stuff WGA on behalf of its members will be asking for:

overall increased compensation and pension health and welfare across features and tv
standardized compensation and residuals whether a feature is released theatrically or by SVOD (i.e. streaming)
applying MBA minimums to comedy variety programs made for new media
increased residuals for under compensation reuse markets
restricting use of excerpts without compensation
for feature writing contracts in which compensation falls below a certain dollar figure, require weekly payment of compensation and a minimum of two writing steps
strengthen regulation of options and exclusivity in television writer employment contracts
regulate use of material produced using AI or similar technologies
enact measures to combat discrimination and harassment and to promote pay equity

What Next?

Now we wait…

Sara McFarlane

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