Talks between actors union SAG-AFTRA and Hollywood studios broke down Wednesday, with the entertainment companies suspending negotiations on a new contract.
According to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, negotiations were canceled because the sides remain too divided.
“After meaningful conversations, it is clear that the gap between the AMPTP and SAG-AFTRA is too great, and conversations are no longer moving in a productive direction,” said the studio alliance in an emailed statement Wednesday night.
In a message to members after midnight, SAG-AFTRA accused the alliance of engaging in “bully tactics,” and claimed that the studios walked away from the bargaining table after refusing to counter the union’s latest offer.
“The companies are using the same failed strategy they tried to inflict on the WGA — putting out misleading information in an attempt to fool our members into abandoning solidarity and putting pressure on our negotiators,” the actors guild said. “But, just like the writers, our members are smarter than that.”
The key point of contention is a union demand to share in streaming revenue, which the AMPTP says would cost $800 million a year. SAG-AFTRA said that figure was inflated by 60%, and that its proposal would cost the average streaming platform 57 cents per subscriber per year.
Company executives have rejected the union’s demands to share in streaming revenue, which would be in addition to existing residuals. The AMPTP said such a concession would “create an untenable economic burden.”
Also critical to negotiations is reaching common ground on the use of generative artificial intelligence, which actors say represents a threat to their livelihoods.
The AMPTP said its proposal requires written and informed consent to digitally replicate a performer and prohibits further use of that replica without additional consent.
But SAG-AFTRA said the alliance’s proposal doesn’t offer enough protections, and that studios want to “demand consent on the first day of employment for use of a performer’s digital replica for an entire cinematic universe.”
“We have sacrificed too much to capitulate to their stonewalling and greed,” SAG-AFTRA told its members. “We stand united and ready to negotiate today, tomorrow, and every day.”
Film and TV actors have been on strike since July, and urged members to continue showing up at picket lines to express their solidarity.
