THB #407: Whose AI Is It Anyway?

The 2 big hurdles I am anticipating as SAG/Afrta and AMPTP get serious about talking this week (we assume) are:

1. Make-Up Money - SAG took a hard screwing in 2008 as the enthusiasm for a strike had been drained by WGA’s strike and the overall power as an organization esd threatened by AFTRA, which made a series of not-so-demanding deals with producers on the basis that the distinction between film and tape had evaporated and AFTRA could now take pretty much anything that had long been considered SAG territory.

No strike. A loss of support for the activist side of SAG. Bad contract. Merger. Some things got better. Some things got worse.

So, 4 completed contracts later, they are asking for an 11% increase to minimums. followed by the extremely normal 4% a year request. The 11% thing is extremely unlikely to happen. Doesn’t mean they haven’t deserved more money in the past. But you can’t really expect make-up increases for basic minimums. I do expect SAG-Aftra to get a big foreign residual bump, as DGA and WGA did, but that’s a zero-to-reasonable thing. Maybe 5% or 5.5%.

Also not happening… 2% of the gross receipts for SVOD subscriptions. I would love to see a beautiful new world. But not happening.

2. The 2nd big hurdle - and the focus of this newsletter today - is Artificial Intelligence.