After a dramatic day of studio results and deadline ultimatums, the actors' guild's 17-member negotiating committee voted unanimously this afternoon to recommend a tentative agreement to the SAG-AFTRA board.
Specific details of the agreement are expected to be revealed when it is presented to the board of directors on Friday.
Less than a month after Writers Guild members overwhelmingly ratified their own agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the SAG-AFTRA agreement is the culmination of the latest round of renewed negotiations that began Oct. 24 . To signal the seriousness and stakes of the negotiations, Ted Sarandos of Netflix, Bob Iger of Disney, Donna Langley of NBCUniversal and David Zaslav of Warner Bros Discovery often participated directly in the conversations.
The tentative agreement follows the studios' response last Friday to the guild's latest extended counteroffer with a self-described "historic" package. That was followed less than 24 hours later by an extensive group of study leaders - including executives from Paramount, Amazon, Apple and more - who joined the Gang of Four to inform SAG-AFTRA of the AMPTP's offer, which reportedly included major included raises and bonuses, as well as sweeping AI protections.
“We didn’t just come toward you, we came all the way to you,” Sarandos told guild leaders Saturday before SAG-AFTRA brass began digging into the fine print. Further talks between the two sides began earlier this week as the guild pored over the studios’ latest set of proposals.
After talks this week, the AMPTP told SAG-AFTRA yesterday afternoon that they needed to know by 5pm (US time) whether an agreement was possible or not. They said time was running out to save the 2024 broadcast season and summer film schedule.
The agreement was confirmed about half an hour later.
If all goes according to plan and the board approves the tentative agreement, members of the 160,000-strong actor guild will soon vote to ratify the new agreement. Because SAG-AFTRA pulled the plug on the strike just after midnight and before the ratification vote was completed, people can quickly return to work and production can quickly restart.
Today's tentative agreement, which exposes many of the shifts and divisions in the industry over the past decade, comes at the end of a long road full of detours and potholes.
In total, the six-month strikes in Hollywood are estimated to have cost the Southern California economy more than $6.5 billion and 45,000 entertainment jobs, after production came to a standstill when the WGA picketed and SAG AFTRA followed in mid-July.
