Ted Sarandos Blames SAG-AFTRA For Breaking “Momentum” & Contract Talks Ending; “We Want …To Get Everyone Back To Work”

deadline.com:

“We want nothing more than to resolve this and get everyone back to work,” declared Netflix’s Ted Sarandos at the top of the streamer’s Q3 earnings video call Wednesday, exactly a week after talks with the actors guild ceased, for now. “That’s true for Netflix.

That’s true for every member of the AMPTP,” the co-CEO added of his studio peers. Amidst an uptick in subscribers beyond Wall Street expectations and a surging after-hours stock, a newly unveiled deal with Skydance Animation and Netflix’s move into live sports, Sarandos’ comments Wednesday come a couple of hours after the streamer released its third-quarter earnings results.

Reminiscent of Steve Jobs’ famed reality distortion field, the streamer oddly referred to talks with SAG-AFTRA as “ongoing” in its report – even though the parties have not negotiated in over a week and there seem to be no significant back-channel conversations. .A fact Sarandos acknowledged in his remarks today. “We spent hours and hours with SAG-AFTRA over the last few weeks, and we were actually very optimistic that we were making progress,” the garrulous Sarandos went on to say Wednesday of the now stalled talks. “But then at the very end of our last session together, the guild presented this new demand …a subscriber levy unrelated to viewing or success, and this really broke our momentum unfortunately.” Still never wanting to end on a down note, Sarandos ended with: “You should know we are incredibly and totally committed to ending this strike.

You know, the industry, our communities, in the economy are all hurting. So, we need to get a deal done that respects all sides as soon as we possibly can.” SAG-AFTRA has said before and since talks broke down on October 11, they are willing to