Still At Loggerheads On Payment For Online Shows

The Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have been at loggerheads over what compensation should be paid for content on new-media platforms.

Initially, the WGA had been asking for that flat 2.5% fee for the streaming of content, such as TV shows, online.

But the TV writers, who went on strike Nov. 5, have now revamped their proposal on new-media residuals.

The WGA’s most recent offer, proposes a tiered compensation formula – based on viewing -- for the online streaming of TV shows.

Under the new formula proposed by the writers, they would get paid a 3% payment of “the applicable minimum” for the first 100,000 streams of a TV show in a quarter, and another 3% for each subsequent 100,000 views in that quarter, according to a WGA spokesman. At the start of each subsequent quarter, the count to 100,000 streams would start over again, with another 3% for each 100,000 streams.

After the first year, residuals for reuse would be 2.5% of distributor’s gross, with the same rate should also applying to the streaming of movies.

The AMPTP has offered to pay a single fixed fee of less than $250 a year for the video streaming of an hour-long TV show on the Web.