Contract goes to DGA members for approval
The Directors Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) have come to an agreement on a new film and television contract that includes major changes in how directors will be paid for their work on projects for streaming services.
Negotiations, which began on Feb 10, concluded March 4 and were led by Negotiations Committee Co-Chairs Jon Avnet and Todd Holland, and the Guild’s chief negotiator, National Executive Director Russell Hollander.
Details of the tentative agreement will be released after it has been submitted to the Guild’s National Board for approval at a special board meeting scheduled for Saturday.
The new deal is the result of a lengthy negotiating process that has taken several weeks to complete and comes in the midst of a wave of new streamers being launched, from Disney+ to HBO Max and Peacock. With studios seeking new, original content to present exclusively on these services, the AMPTP’s talks with Hollywood guilds are expected to set new standards on compensation for cast and crew on these new digital projects.
Just before negotiations began, DGA members received a memo from Avnet and Holland discussing the changing industry environment that the talks would be conducted in.
“We are in the midst of a complicated, rapidly changing and evolving industry with studios continuing to consolidate and become increasingly vertically integrated, and new streaming services like Disney+, Apple TV+, HBO Max and Peacock coming online,” the memo read. “With this new landscape are complex issues to confront – and so it should come as no surprise that going through our process has been a lengthier undertaking than in previous years.”
The current contract between the DGA and AMPTP is set to expire on June 30.
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