SAG-AFTRA To Start TV/Movie Drama Talks May 5

SAG-AFTRA said Friday that negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers over successor agreements to the TV/theatrical contract will begin May 5.

Lead AMPTP negotiator will be AMPTP president Carol Lombardini. Ken Howard, president of SAG-AFTRA, will chair the union negotiating committee, while the union's national executive director David White will be the chief negotiator.

Both parties said they would not be talking to reporters during the negotiations—what they labeled a "formal news blackout"—and would not comment further. The successor agreements deal specifically with scripted TV and theatrical dramas.

SAG-AFTRA represents more than 165,000 actors, announcers, broadcast journalists, DJs, news writers, singers, stunt performers, voiceover artists and others.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.