The Writers Guild Of America strike is over
Though it still must be ratified, the WGA deal includes protections against AI, minimum staffing requirements, and bonuses for successful streaming content
Aux Features Writers Guild of America
The Writers Guild Of America has just announced that, as of 12:01 AM on Wednesday, September 27, the WGA strike will be over. After reaching a tentative agreement with the AMPTP late Sunday night, the union’s Negotiating Committee took that agreement to the WGA West’s board and the WGA East’s council, who all voted “unanimously” to recommend the agreement to the two guilds’ members for approval. It still needs to be ratified by union members, who will begin voting on October 2, but the strike has now been lifted and writers are free to go back to work—with the union noting that lifting the strike and going back to work should not impact anyone’s “right to make a final determination on contract approval” (meaning everyone could still vote to reject this deal if they want to, and they should not be swayed by the decision to end the strike).
Over the next few weeks, everyone who follows the entertainment industry will be closely examining the terms of the deal that the WGA fought so hard to win—with nearly 150 days on the picket lines—but the union has shared a summary of the Memorandum Of Agreement that includes some particularly noteworthy highlights. For one thing, there’s language that should prevent screenwriters from being replaced by AI, even as “source material” (presumably meaning a studio can’t get an AI to come up with a movie idea and then have a human writer actually write it).
Beyond that, the agreement says that AI “can’t write or rewrite literary material,” that a company “can’t require [a] writer” to use AI software, and that a company must inform a writer if any materials they’re basing their work off of have been generated by an AI. Basically, it sounds like it means that a writer can’t be forced to use AI, replaced by AI, or tricked into using something generated by AI—which is all cool as hell.
There are also increased minimums and new payment structures, new minimum staffing requirements for writers’ rooms (which seems like a huge win), and a “viewership-based streaming bonus” for writers working on “High Budget Subscription Video On Demand” projects (like a big Netflix show or whatever) that comes into play if a project is viewed by at least 20 percent of a streaming service’s audience.
Speaking of, the studios have agreed to give the WGA data indicating the “total number of hours streamed” for “self-produced high budget streaming programs” (again, a Netflix show), and while the union will have to agree to a “confidentiality agreement,” it can share that information “with the membership in an aggregated form.” That means, if the WGA agrees to keep it a secret, Netflix (or whoever) will provide actual specific viewership data, which we have never really ever seen before.
It all sounds like a bunch of solid wins for the WGA, since even the stuff the union gave up (like allowing a company to release a streaming project in theaters after debuting on a streaming platform) seems fairly inoffensive compared to the gains. Now we just have to hope SAG-AFTRA gets what it wants, then the striking United Auto Workers members, and we can officially declare this a win for the unions across the board. Unions work! The President says so!
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The statistics-obsessed part of me is bummed it’s falling short of the ‘88 strike record.
Why is it ending at 12:01 AM? Typically the 11:59/12:01 distinction is to prevent confusion over the date, as even though midnight 00:00 is the beginning of the new day, some people consider 24:00 to be the last moment of the previous day. The strike should end at 11:59 PM tonight (and 59 seconds if you want to be so precise), and tomorrow should be a full day of glorious writing, instead of 99.99% allowed work and .01% scabbing.
20% of subscribers is a pretty high bar. Netflix has about 75 million US subscribers. 20% is 15 million – a number hit by pretty much no broadcast shows (the only sector we have even semi-reliable numbers for) except things like the Sunday night NFL game. Obviously we don’t know how many streaming shows have hit those numbers in the past since the streaming services are very coy about their numbers and the ones they do release for PR are not to be trusted anyway.Apple has about 25 million. Disney+ and Max probably have about 50 million each and if Amazon gets to count all Prime members, that’s about 170 million. Very few shows are going to qualify.
Also, streamers have been very, very cagey about their metrics – it was one of the sticking points with this strike. It’s still self-measured by the streamers themselves, and doesn’t preclude them fucking with it in other ways. For example, if a show is looking to crack the magic 20% figure, Netflix, or whoever, could magically make it disappear from the apps front page or suggested views and stop promoting it, making it less easy for people to find. They could instigate a massive subscription drive towards a demographic that won’t watch a particular show (eg, weebs if, say, a chick flick is getting too big) that would instead their subs but not the people watching the show. Or they could just change their metrics again.
I can’t help but be reminded of the scene in Guys And Dolls where the guy runs a craps game with unmarked dice, and tells the players he just remembers which sides were which, and oh no, they lost again, what a shame.
The minimum staffing thing seems so weird. How does it cover shows like Afterlife where all three seasons were written by Ricky Gervais, or Chernobyl where the entire miniseries was written by Craig Mazin. Is there going to be someone to tell a creator in a situation like this that the studio is also going to be paying someone else as a writer even if they do the whole thing?
After Life is a British show, so likely wouldn’t be covered by this agreement anyway. (The UK has its own rules and regulations covering TV productions.) Chernobyl was a joint UK and US production that was filmed in Lithuania, so I have no idea what the situation was there. British sitcoms, in particular, are traditionally written by one or two people.But in both cases, the shows were created and written by one person and, of course, they were executive producers too, and were no doubt extremely well compensated for their work without needing any union support.In the US, the writing of TV shows is typically a much more collaborative effort with a team of writers involved in a show, so that’s what the new rules are focused on — shows that are written and filmed in the US (and Canada, presumably, given the proximity).
The following requirements are triggered depending on the number of episodes ordered, unless a single writer is engaged to write all episodes:https://www.wgacontract2023.org/the-campaign/summary-of-the-2023-wga-mba
There’s an exception for solo-writer projects, and the minimums kick in after six episodes if the project isn’t specifically contracted as a solo show.
As others have pointed out, it specifically carves out a loophole for solo writer-season projects. We might see more shorter “seasons” with a single writer going forward.
while the union will have to agree to a “confidentiality agreement,” it can share that information “with the membership in an aggregated form.”
I chuckled over the fact that the studios managed to get them to agree to keep it secret. They really are desperate to keep that information hidden from outside investors and public criticism, which makes me inclined towards the theory that there are a ton of expensive shows getting made because the studios “like the creator/top executive likes the show/etc” but which have mediocre viewership. Having that be public would potentially enable activist investors to try and unseat top streaming executives.
For one thing, there’s language that should prevent screenwriters from
being replaced by AI, even as “source material” (presumably meaning a studio can’t get an AI to come up with a movie idea and then have a human writer actually write it).
It just means that if a streamer decides to add AI-generated content, it won’t be from one of the studios covered by the agreement.
It’s pretty impressive that they got a minimum staffing requirement, although I laughed at the Taylor Sheridan-shaped loophole in it (wonder why it exempts it from the rule if a single writer does the whole season?). I’m guessing we’ll see a lot more shorter “seasons” with longer episodes, like how the last Stranger Things season had 2+ hour “episodes”.
Unions work! The President says so!The President often speaks in gibberish. So that’s not much of an endorsement.
The studios at 12:01 this morning:
Congratulations to the WGA for delaying the inevitable.
Congratulations to the one-joke rightoid for “predicting” the strike would fail, lmfaohttps://www.avclub.com/1850825112