Progress continues to be made on a new contract between SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, as the two sides announced in a joint statement that talks will continue on Friday.
Negotiations will then pause for the weekend while the guild and the studios work “internally,” then restart on Monday.
“SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP met for a full day bargaining session and have concluded. Negotiations will continue on Friday, October 6, with the parties working internally over the weekend, resuming Monday, October 9,” the groups said.
There’s no word yet about the progress of talks.
SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP began talks at the former’s Miracle Mile headquarters, with CEOs from Disney, Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery and NBCUniversal once again in attendance.
While the second day of talks took place, the actors’ guild’s chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland testified at a Federal Trade Commission hearing on artificial intelligence. Crabtree-Ireland was only present for part of the hearing to return to the talks, but joined members of the Writers Guild of America and other unions in urging for regulations on generative AI to protect artists.
“If an individual decided to infringe on one of these companies’ copyright-protected content, and distributed it without paying for the licensing rights, that individual would face a great deal of financial and legal ramifications,” Crabtree-Ireland said. “Shouldn’t the individuals whose intellectual property was used to train the AI algorithm at least be equally protected?”
Artificial intelligence will be one of the top issues of SAG-AFTRA contract, as the guild is expected to be meticulous in ensuring that the language regarding actors’ consent and compensation in relation to digital replicas of their likeness and voice does not contain any loopholes.
Still, optimism was high going into this week that a deal can be reached on issues such as streaming compensation, AI consent, and higher pay for various types of performers considering that the studio CEOs are approaching the talks with the same urgency and engagement they used during talks with the Writers Guild of America last month.
That contract includes a bonus model for TV shows and movies that perform and increased pay for writers of all types through contract gains such as guaranteed two-step payments for screenwriters and guaranteed 13 weeks of scale pay for comedy-variety writers. WGA members can currently vote on whether to ratify the contract, with the results of the vote set to be announced on Oct. 9.
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