Much to the relief of the spot community, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP) reached an agreement last Friday (5/4) on a tentative three-year contract. The deal, which requires ratification from WGA membership, also improves prospects for the AMPTP and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) to work out a settlement when they get to the negotiating table in the coming weeks.
As earlier reported in SHOOT, the commercialmaking industry has been fearful that a WGA and/or a SAG strike against feature/TV studios would at the very least compromise the fall TV season, causing advertisers to curtail their original spot production. Media buyers at major ad agencies have expressed concern that a strike or strikes could prompt an overload of reality and news shows, creating a fall programming mix not as inviting to sponsors as the perennial menu of first-run sitcoms and drama series.
That scenario on top of a generally slumping economy could have translated into even tougher times for spotmakers and related support services, many of which haven’t yet fully recovered from last year’s six-month-long actors’ strike against the ad industry.
However, that strike may paradoxically factor in helping to bring about an agreement this time around between SAG and the feature/TV studios. This was the earlier-voiced contention of Ira Shepard, legal counsel to the Joint Policy Committee (JPC) of Broadcast Talent Relations for the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As). The JPC represented the ANA and the 4As in last year’s negotiations with SAG and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA).
Addressing the ANA Television Advertising Forum in New York a couple of months ago (SHOOT, 4/13, p. 1), Shepard alluded to the fact that SAG members lost in excess of $100 million in wages during the advertising strike. "They [SAG] can’t afford another strike," said Shepard. "I am confident they will hammer out an agreement."
Indeed, with the AMPTP and the WGA attaining a pivotal settlement, the current conventional wisdom is that the actors and feature/TV studios will also come to an agreement. The current AMPTP contract with SAG expires June 30.
