Hollywood CEOs will discuss the ongoing writers strike on Friday, sources said, after Writers Guild Of America (WGA) and their counterparts at Alliance Of Motion Picture And Television Producers (AMPTP) met again on Thursday.
According to reports Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos and Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav are expected to join NBCUniversal film head Donna Langley and others in a bid to thrash out next steps.
The development comes after the two sides returned to the negotiating table on Thursday – their third meeting in less than a week – offering a glimmer of hope that there will be a breakthrough in an impasse that has seen the WGA strike stretch to 108 days.
When the parties reconvened on Friday August 11 AMPTP offered a counter-proposal to the WGA demands which the Guild took away to consider. Several days later the cautious optimism stemming from that meeting subsided somewhat as it emerged that the parties remained far apart on several key issues.
The Guild has been fighting for a number of terms, the most contentious being increases in minimum pay, greater transparency in streaming viewership, agreement on minimum staffing levels in TV writers rooms, and regulation of AI.
Nonetheless observers have taken some comfort in the fact that the two sides have maintained steady contact this week.
The media heads are preparing for Friday’s call amid a backlash in recent weeks over their multi-million dollar compensation packages, which are in stark contrast to the plight of the majority of the WGA (and SAG-AFTRA) members who work gig-to-gig and in some cases struggle to earn enough to afford health insurance.
Earlier on Thursday WGA issued a damning report highlighting the growing power of Netflix, Disney and Amazon and calling for increased government oversight of media consolidation and investigation into anti-trust practices.
No comments yet