The Hollywood writers’ strike doesn’t appear to be ending soon.
The group representing Hollywood studios and streaming services, collectively known as the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, outlined its latest offer to striking writers on Tuesday. The latest concessions include a guaranteed minimum length of employment, controls around generative artificial intelligence usage, wage and residual increases and quarterly reports on viewing hours per title for streaming shows, according to The Wall Street Journal.
We have come to the table with an offer that meets the priority concerns the writers have expressed,” AMPTP President Carol Lombardini said in a statement. “We are deeply committed to ending the strike and are hopeful that the WGA will work toward the same resolution.”
The Writers Guild of America, however, has a different take. The union published an update on the negotiations on Tuesday night, saying that representatives had gone to speak with Disney CEO Bob Iger, Universal Chief Content Officer Donna Langley, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav and Lombardini, only to be “met with a lecture about how good their single and only counteroffer was.”
The WGA maintains that the counteroffer fails to address several of the issues raised by the union.
The WGA strike is nearing its fourth month, leaving the fate of the 2023-2024 television season up in the air along with several movies. Hollywood writers are demanding concessions like increased pay and job security. Over 11,000 writers joined the first Hollywood strike in 15 years in response to the ripple effects of the streaming industry. According to a release from the WGA in March, writers are underpaid with reduced hours and lack basic protections of a minimum bargaining agreement.
” [W]hile series budgets have soared over the past decade, median writer-producer pay has fallen,” the WGA said at the time.
The WGA wasn’t immediately available for comment.
Previously, the WGA went on strike in 2007 and succeeded in gaining coverage of content made for new media at the time, as well as residuals for reuse on new media platforms like digital downloads and ad-supported services.