I’ve been following the developments in the labor negotiations between the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) and the two main actors’ unions (SAG and AFTRA) for a couple of months now, and what began as quiet negotiation has turned into a very public squabble. Not between AMPTP and the unions, but between SAG and AFTRA and the various factions within. You have probably read or heard mainstream media stories now that big name actors are publicly involved. The media are playing up the George Clooney vs. Tom Hanks confrontation big time.
If you’ve been reading my posts, you know that AFTRA accepted what is generally considered to be a weak offering from AMPTP. The battle in these negotiations is over payments for re-use of material in digital deliverables, the same issue that the Writers’ Guild went to strike over during the winter. It’s felt that the deal AFTRA accepted is not as good as the deal the WGA got, but because AFTRA is a smaller subset of performers they just didn’t have the clout to push for a similar deal. AFTRA’s acceptance gave AMPTP a lot more leverage in negotiating with SAG, which actually walked away from negotiations a couple of months ago. So now the fight is whether or not to take the same deal as AFTRA or hold out for more and make the threat of an actor’s strike even more likely. Hollywood veteran Mark Evanier offers his assessment on the recent developments.
Meanwhile, having won their battle, the Writers’ Guild has moved on to new battles. Last week, Advertising Age reported that the WGA had petitioned the FCC to begin formal inquiries into the practice of in-show product placements on television. (It happens in film, too, but the FCC doesn’t have regulatory oversight there) Now the FCC officially announces that it will do just that, launching a formal Notice of Inquiry and Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOTE: link goes to a PDF). A similar effort was made last year, but the FCC abruptly dropped the proceedings.
The complaints come in two forms: first, media reform watchdog groups are opposed to the practice in its entirety. It’s one thing when brand-name products are used as props or background items on a set in the name of verisimilitude, and another when the action of a scene or even the entire production features specific products as part of the dramatic continuity. Some groups want the practice abolished, and others would settle for some sort of “sponsored by” notification in the credits of the show to acknowledge the presence of the advertisement. Second, the WGA and other industry groups aren’t bothered by product placements at all, they just want their cut of the action. Because product placements aren’t formally part of the production deal between a television network and a producer, writers and actors and so on don’t see any of the money the producer gets. Forcing the producers and networks to fess up to product placement would give the WGA et. al. something esle to bargain for with AMPTP down the road.
The music industry (which, let’s face it, is really the same thing as the movie industry and the television industry, since all media in the U.S. is controlled by five corporations) continues to die its slow, painful, desperate death. Last week the RIAA lost an argument they made in one of their ongoing cases against file sharing; they claimed that merely having files on your computer that were visible to other people constituted the same thing as actively uploading files for sharing. It puts them at a distinct disadvantage at prosecuting any more cases. Meanwhile, it looks like sme musical artists are beginning to see that there is life without the traditional record companies. According to this Ars Technica story from a couple of weeks ago, a clearinghouse label called “Merlin” that was formed by a handful of independent artists now licenses music for 12,000 artists, making it the fifth largest record label. Major artists as well as up-and-coming acts are offered, and Merlin may go after the thousands of artists who promote their own music on MySpace, giving them a chance at much wider promotions and sales.
