Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Hollywood writers may end a three- month strike this week after their union approved a tentative labor contract with film and television studios.
Writers Guild of America boards on the East and West coasts are asking members to ratify the agreement during the next 10 to 12 days, union leaders said at a press conference yesterday. A separate vote on whether to end the strike is taking place within 48 hours, meaning writers may return to work Feb. 13.
The union held meetings in Los Angeles and New York over the weekend and urged members to endorse the deal, while telling them that the agreement is ``neither perfect nor perhaps all that we deserve.'' The three-year contract, which includes a pay raise and compensation for work used on the Internet, is similar to the one studios reached with Hollywood directors last month.
``I'd be very surprised if the membership did not support the executive board in a situation like this,'' said Charles Kaplan, a partner at Lowenstein Sandler PC in New York with more than 25 years of experience representing employers on labor issues. ``It seems that in general the proposed deal was greeted with enthusiasm by the members.''
Both the writers and studios have been under pressure to reach an agreement before the Feb. 24 Academy Awards telecast on Walt Disney Co.'s ABC. The strike by 12,000 union members froze production on scripted television shows and movies, putting more than 50,000 entertainment industry employees out of work.
Jesse Hiestand, a spokesman for the studios' bargaining entity, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, declined to comment. AMPTP members include Disney, News Corp., Viacom Inc., CBS Corp., General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal, Sony Corp. and Time Warner Inc.
Getting Paid
The agreement would give writers minimum pay increases of 3 percent to 3.5 percent a year, similar to the raises negotiated by the Directors Guild of America. The contract calls for writers to get 2 percent of the ``distributor's gross,'' or advertising sales received by networks, for shows streamed on the Internet.
``When they get paid, we get paid,'' Patric Verrone, president of WGA's west chapter, said at the press conference in Los Angeles yesterday. ``Our stated goal was always to get a share of the future and we have that in this agreement.''
The percentage of Internet sales is about seven times the royalty guild members receive for DVD sales, union negotiator David Young said in an interview.
Not Enough?
The guild made a mistake in dropping demands for a higher cut of DVD sales in order to gain a percent of Internet revenue, said Jonathan Handel, an entertainment attorney with TroyGould in Los Angeles, who is a former associate counsel for the union. He wasn't involved in the talks.
``DVD business is a $16 billion business that is not going to suddenly evaporate,'' Handel said in an interview yesterday. ``Meanwhile the Internet business is far smaller. That's a lot of money being left on the table.''
Michael Winship, president of WGA East, told reporters after the Feb. 9 meeting in New York that he thought guild members would endorse the contract agreement. Writers coming out of the meetings described the overall mood as positive.
``Everybody for the most part seemed happy,'' said Mike Rowe, a writer for shows including ``Futurama'' and ``Family Guy,'' who attended the Los Angeles meeting on Feb. 9. ``They carefully outlined things that were really great deals and apologized for things that weren't so great.''
Bill Scheft, a writer for the ``Late Show with David Letterman,'' said the East Coast meeting earlier that day was ``definitely not a revolt.''
Economic Cost
The walkout has cost the Los Angeles economy about $1.9 billion, including the loss of business for restaurants and others who serve the industry, Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp., a private research firm, said on Feb. 5. Writers lost about $258 million in pay and other unionized workers, including stagehands, about $444 million, he said.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said today in a statement that he's pleased to hear the strike ``appears to be in its final stages.''
``A sensible end to the strike is a win-win for California and the country because the entertainment industry is so important to our economy and so many Californians can now get back to work,'' Schwarzenegger said.
More than 40,000 members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees in the U.S. and Canada also lost jobs, union spokeswoman Katherine Orloff said.
Film Delays
The strike has also delayed work on films including Sony's ``Angels & Demons,'' based on the book by Dan Brown, and Warner Bros.' ``Shantaram,'' Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst William Kidd said in a report last month.
The WGA negotiated interim agreements with more than a dozen independent film and television producers, including Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., United Artists and Weinstein Co., to force major studios back to the bargaining table after formal talks broke down.
Once the strike is settled, studios will restart production as quickly as possible to salvage the remainder of the current television season that runs through May, Tuna Amobi, an analyst with Standard & Poor's in New York, said in an e-mail.
Disney, based in Burbank, California, has retreated 5.9 percent since the strike began Nov. 5. The stock fell 19 cents to $31.93 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
Time Warner, down 13 percent in the same period, rose 4 cents to $15.63. Class A shares of News Corp., off 8 percent during the walkout, fell 13 cents to $19.51. Viacom Class B shares fell 6 cents to $39.39 and have declined 5.3 percent. CBS dropped 6 cents to $24.52 and is down 11 percent. The four companies are based in New York.
American depositary receipts of Tokyo-based Sony gained 51 cents to $43.50 and have fallen 12 percent. General Electric, in Fairfield, Connecticut, advanced 17 cents to $34.01 and has declined 16 percent.
Writers Guild of America boards on the East and West coasts are asking members to ratify the agreement during the next 10 to 12 days, union leaders said at a press conference yesterday. A separate vote on whether to end the strike is taking place within 48 hours, meaning writers may return to work Feb. 13.
The union held meetings in Los Angeles and New York over the weekend and urged members to endorse the deal, while telling them that the agreement is ``neither perfect nor perhaps all that we deserve.'' The three-year contract, which includes a pay raise and compensation for work used on the Internet, is similar to the one studios reached with Hollywood directors last month.
``I'd be very surprised if the membership did not support the executive board in a situation like this,'' said Charles Kaplan, a partner at Lowenstein Sandler PC in New York with more than 25 years of experience representing employers on labor issues. ``It seems that in general the proposed deal was greeted with enthusiasm by the members.''
Both the writers and studios have been under pressure to reach an agreement before the Feb. 24 Academy Awards telecast on Walt Disney Co.'s ABC. The strike by 12,000 union members froze production on scripted television shows and movies, putting more than 50,000 entertainment industry employees out of work.
Jesse Hiestand, a spokesman for the studios' bargaining entity, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, declined to comment. AMPTP members include Disney, News Corp., Viacom Inc., CBS Corp., General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal, Sony Corp. and Time Warner Inc.
Getting Paid
The agreement would give writers minimum pay increases of 3 percent to 3.5 percent a year, similar to the raises negotiated by the Directors Guild of America. The contract calls for writers to get 2 percent of the ``distributor's gross,'' or advertising sales received by networks, for shows streamed on the Internet.
``When they get paid, we get paid,'' Patric Verrone, president of WGA's west chapter, said at the press conference in Los Angeles yesterday. ``Our stated goal was always to get a share of the future and we have that in this agreement.''
The percentage of Internet sales is about seven times the royalty guild members receive for DVD sales, union negotiator David Young said in an interview.
Not Enough?
The guild made a mistake in dropping demands for a higher cut of DVD sales in order to gain a percent of Internet revenue, said Jonathan Handel, an entertainment attorney with TroyGould in Los Angeles, who is a former associate counsel for the union. He wasn't involved in the talks.
``DVD business is a $16 billion business that is not going to suddenly evaporate,'' Handel said in an interview yesterday. ``Meanwhile the Internet business is far smaller. That's a lot of money being left on the table.''
Michael Winship, president of WGA East, told reporters after the Feb. 9 meeting in New York that he thought guild members would endorse the contract agreement. Writers coming out of the meetings described the overall mood as positive.
``Everybody for the most part seemed happy,'' said Mike Rowe, a writer for shows including ``Futurama'' and ``Family Guy,'' who attended the Los Angeles meeting on Feb. 9. ``They carefully outlined things that were really great deals and apologized for things that weren't so great.''
Bill Scheft, a writer for the ``Late Show with David Letterman,'' said the East Coast meeting earlier that day was ``definitely not a revolt.''
Economic Cost
The walkout has cost the Los Angeles economy about $1.9 billion, including the loss of business for restaurants and others who serve the industry, Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp., a private research firm, said on Feb. 5. Writers lost about $258 million in pay and other unionized workers, including stagehands, about $444 million, he said.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said today in a statement that he's pleased to hear the strike ``appears to be in its final stages.''
``A sensible end to the strike is a win-win for California and the country because the entertainment industry is so important to our economy and so many Californians can now get back to work,'' Schwarzenegger said.
More than 40,000 members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees in the U.S. and Canada also lost jobs, union spokeswoman Katherine Orloff said.
Film Delays
The strike has also delayed work on films including Sony's ``Angels & Demons,'' based on the book by Dan Brown, and Warner Bros.' ``Shantaram,'' Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst William Kidd said in a report last month.
The WGA negotiated interim agreements with more than a dozen independent film and television producers, including Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., United Artists and Weinstein Co., to force major studios back to the bargaining table after formal talks broke down.
Once the strike is settled, studios will restart production as quickly as possible to salvage the remainder of the current television season that runs through May, Tuna Amobi, an analyst with Standard & Poor's in New York, said in an e-mail.
Disney, based in Burbank, California, has retreated 5.9 percent since the strike began Nov. 5. The stock fell 19 cents to $31.93 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
Time Warner, down 13 percent in the same period, rose 4 cents to $15.63. Class A shares of News Corp., off 8 percent during the walkout, fell 13 cents to $19.51. Viacom Class B shares fell 6 cents to $39.39 and have declined 5.3 percent. CBS dropped 6 cents to $24.52 and is down 11 percent. The four companies are based in New York.
American depositary receipts of Tokyo-based Sony gained 51 cents to $43.50 and have fallen 12 percent. General Electric, in Fairfield, Connecticut, advanced 17 cents to $34.01 and has declined 16 percent.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aJo_5on7yepk&refer=muse
AND WHAT ABOUT OUR FAVORITE SHOW????
The fate of "Heroes" is certain: no more supernatural drama until fall. NBC announced that because of the show's high level of production, they won't roll out new episodes until September. "It's a high concept show that usually needs a bigger number of episodes to develop a storyline and it's also a very event-driven show," Szalai said. But the show, which attracted an average of 14.3 million viewers in its first season and dipped in popularity in its second, could suffer from the lag time. "It's a shame, Bianculli said, "because you have to worry about the momentum on that show.
AND WHAT ABOUT OUR FAVORITE SHOW????The fate of "Heroes" is certain: no more supernatural drama until fall. NBC announced that because of the show's high level of production, they won't roll out new episodes until September. "It's a high concept show that usually needs a bigger number of episodes to develop a storyline and it's also a very event-driven show," Szalai said. But the show, which attracted an average of 14.3 million viewers in its first season and dipped in popularity in its second, could suffer from the lag time. "It's a shame, Bianculli said, "because you have to worry about the momentum on that show.
No comments:
Post a Comment