Downloaded or on the Screen—Actors Should Be Paid

by James Parks, Oct 23, 2006

Whenever you download an episode of your favorite TV show, or when a website offers free versions of a show, the network wins—but what about the writers and actors who do the work? 

According to the Los Angeles Times:

…writers and actors believe studios are ducking the issue of how to properly pay them when their work is viewed via the Web. With major labor contracts expiring over the next two years, fears are growing that digital distribution will become such a contentious issue that it could prompt a strike.

The issue is simple: How much should actors and writers be paid for movies and TV shows downloaded on the Internet? The studios claim the download is nothing more than a promotion for a show and the writers and actors shouldn’t get paid much, if at all. But the actors and writers say they should be paid similar to what they get when their work airs on pay TV.

Alan Rosenberg, president of the Screen Actors (SAG), told the Times:

We’ve learned from history that when these new technologies emerge that we can be left behind,. We have to make sure we don’t wait 20 years to get properly compensated.

Under contracts negotiated 20 years ago before the Internet video boom, distributors get 80 cents of every dollar earned selling videos of shows and movies, leaving 20 cents for everyone else, including actors and writers.

The issue will come to a head soon because the pact with the unaffiliated Writers Guild of America, West, covering Web distribution expires next year and SAG’s agreement expires in 2008.

The issue is one that has major implications not only for the entertainment industry, but for the union movement, says Paul Almeida, president of the AFL-CIO’s Department for Professional Employees:

The entertainment unions are poised once again to be hit by another technological revolution. First it was movies, then TV, cable, VHS, DVD, the Internet and now iPods and other downloadable platforms. It’s not over and who knows where it will end?

Employers say they need flexibility to experiment, stating they are not certain which platforms of delivery will be most successful with the public. (Meaning, which platforms will bring them the most profits.) Same song different verse that the unions heard from management when they locked the workers in when VHS first arrived.

Management has the luxury of time to experiment with different platforms while they determine how to maximize profits. However, actors, writers, musicians, technicians and other working professionals who earn their living in this industry don’t have the same luxury. If their work is used they should be paid.

In 2000, members of SAG and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) walked out for six months after talks with advertisers collapsed over fair revenue in commercials aired on cable TV and jurisdiction in the Internet.

Because of the long lead time required for TV and film production, the Times reports some studios and producers already are ordering additional scripts and developing cheap reality shows just in case.

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