Talent agencies propose new revenue sharing contract on first day of renewed discussions with WGA



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On the first day of resumption of discussions between the Writers Guild of America and the Association of Talent Agents, ATA proposed a new revenue-sharing agreement and WGA requested the full text of the contract to "formulate the appropriate response" , according to an email. the guild sent to members on Friday.

"This morning, the bargaining committee received proposals from the ATA. Although there is cause for concern, including a proposal for revenue sharing that, instead of 1%, equals 2%, the presentation was large and complex, "reads the email, signed by all members of the WGA bargaining committee. "We have asked for a contract wording for their proposals to formulate the appropriate response. As we have said, whatever solution is found, it will have to resolve conflicts of interest and realign agency incentives with those of their authoring clients. "

In his opening remarks, a copy of which was provided to TheWrap, Bryan Lourd, CAA's co-chair, told the guild representatives, "The ATA has never been so unified and determined to get this right with the belonging to your guild. Today, we hope to turn the page. Heavy called Friday's ATA position "negotiating against ourselves," and said the agencies were doing so "knowingly and willingly to meet the demands of our customers / members to move our groups towards us." alignment."

ATA did not immediately respond to a request for additional comments from TheWrap.

The latest round of negotiations comes eight weeks after the expiry of the overall agreement between WGA and ATA, with the two parties failing to hear about the practice of packaging – when & # 39; An agency collects fees from a studio or network to pool the talents it represents and present them. this multi-faceted project for the studio or the network.

Packaging has become an important source of revenue for major Hollywood agencies, making them movie or television producers. But WGA considers this to be a conflict of interest and a breach of the fiduciary duty of agents to their clients. In an effort to end this practice, WGA introduced a new, stringent code of conduct earlier this year, barring talented agents representing screenwriters from getting into packaging. The code came into effect on April 13, after the expiry of the global agreement.

Friday's proposal is ATA's second revenue-sharing deal for writers. In early April, just before the code of conduct came into effect, ATA proposed sharing with writers some of the profits from packages. WGA has qualified this offer as unacceptable.

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