The WGA and producers have reached a tentative agreement which could send the writers back to work as early as Monday. Here’s the key quote from the WGA: “It is an agreement that protects a future in which the Internet becomes the primary means of both content creation and delivery,†they said in a memo to members. “It creates formulas for revenue-based residuals in new media, provides access to deals and financial data to help us evaluate and enforce those formulas, and establishes the principle that, ‘When they get paid, we get paid.’”
Explains the NY Times, “The tentative agreement became possible when the sides reached a handshake deal last week on a crucial term under which writers would be paid a fixed residual amounting to about $1,300 for the right to stream a television program online. In the third year of their contract, the writers would achieve one of their major goals — payments amounting to 2 percent of the distributor’s revenue from such streams.”
I’m impressed by the acceptance that the internet will replace traditional, linear TV as the “primary means of content creation and delivery.”
