The Writers Guild of America has secured a new four-year contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers that represents most major studios like Disney and WBD, but also streaming services like Netflix and Amazon, which includes a record contribution of 321 million dollars to stabilize the union’s health fund. The agreement, reached over the weekend and approved unanimously by the guild’s east and west boards on Tuesday, addresses mounting financial pressures on the health plan while delivering modest gains in residuals and other areas, according to Variety. Members will vote on ratification between April 16 and April 24.
The health fund provisions form the core of the deal. Over the past four years, the plan has recorded deficits of about 200 million dollars amid a sharp decline in film and television production and rapid increases in healthcare expenses. Without intervention, reserves were projected to run dry within three years. To counter this, studios will inject 321 million dollars across the contract term, the largest such commitment in the guild’s history and roughly five times the amount provided during the previous major health funding adjustment in 2017. This total includes an increase in employer contributions from 13 percent to 16.75 percent of writers’ gross compensation, along with higher earnings caps used to calculate those payments. An additional 41 million dollars will be redirected from the paid parental leave program to the health fund.
In exchange, writers will face higher out-of-pocket costs. Monthly premiums will rise for the first time in years, moving from zero dollars for individual coverage and 50 dollars for family plans to 75 dollars and 200 dollars respectively. Deductibles will increase from 400 dollars to 500 dollars for individuals and from 1,200 dollars to 1,500 dollars for families. Out-of-pocket maximums will climb from 1,000 dollars per person to 2,500 dollars. The earnings threshold required to qualify for coverage will also rise by 10 percent starting in July 2027, lifting it from the current 46,759 dollars. A new lower-cost health option with a narrower provider network will be introduced to help manage expenses.
The contract further reforms the extended coverage system that allows writers to remain on the plan during periods of unemployment. Under the updated rules, writers will need at least 200,000 dollars in covered earnings in a given year to accumulate points toward extended benefits, a significant tightening from the previous minimum threshold. Existing users of extended coverage will not be affected, but future accumulation will slow substantially. These adjustments aim to balance sustainability with continued access to quality care while keeping overall member costs as manageable as possible despite annual healthcare inflation that has averaged 13 percent since 2019.
Beyond healthcare, the deal includes targeted improvements to compensation. Streaming residuals will see an enhancement through a success bonus that rises from 50 percent to 75 percent of the base residual for the highest-performing shows. Most minimum rates across television and film will receive annual increases of 1.5 percent in the first year followed by 3 percent in each of the subsequent three years. New language discourages producers from requesting unpaid revisions by clarifying that only the hiring company can formally ask for rewrites. Writers of television pilots will gain more flexibility, with limits placed on exclusive holds or first-position commitments without compensation. A higher minimum rate is also established for page-one rewrites, which involve more extensive revisions than standard polishes.
On artificial intelligence, the agreement maintains the protections won in the 2023 contract and adds requirements for transparency. Studios must notify the guild in writing if they license writers’ scripts or produced projects based on those scripts for training commercial generative AI systems. The guild can then request discussions about the license, though no new payments to writers for such uses were secured. Regular meetings between the parties on AI implementation will continue.
The contract preserves the television staffing minimums established after the 2023 strike, rejecting studio proposals to allow limited four-week mini-rooms before projects are greenlit. Studios had pushed for a five-year term to provide greater labor stability, but the final agreement settles on four years. This extension gives employers a longer window without strike risk while delivering writers immediate financial relief on healthcare.
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