Hollywood’s studio heads, stuck in a standoff with the Screen Actors Guild, are making their plea to the rest of the industry in a full-page ad in the Los Angeles Times as the threat of a strike looms.
The “open letter” that appears in Monday’s paper says the actors are jeopardizing the work of other unions that have already made deals with producers.
It says “SAG is demanding that the entire industry literally throw out all its hard work because it believes it deserves more than the 230,000 other people working in the industry.”
The letter was signed by the chief executives of eight major Hollywood studios including The Walt Disney Co. and Paramount Pictures.
The guild responded by accusing the executives of “stonewalling” and said it should not be forced to accept deals made by other unions.
“No other guild or union can negotiate a pattern deal that fits the industry and SAG members, any more than ABC can negotiate license fees for NBC,” it said. “Our issues are different — not better, but different.”
SAG wants union coverage for all Internet-only productions regardless of budget and residual payments for Internet productions replayed online, as well as continued actor protections during work stoppages.
Directors, writers, stagehands and another actors union settled for lesser terms and the studios, represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, said it was untenable for SAG to demand a better deal, especially now that the economy has worsened.
The union is holding a strike authorization vote this month.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More