The End of Ownership: Why the Battle Over Paying TV Creatives Is Only Getting Crazier
variety.comSAG-AFTRA. The discussions are sure to be more charged than usual because of the tectonic shifts across TV and film that were accelerated by pandemic conditions in 2020 and ’21.Hollywood’s famously Byzantine formulas for compensating creative talent have become outmoded in the process, and that has many industry insiders feeling as though they’re working a lot harder just to keep pace with pre-pandemic paychecks.
The growing income gap between richly rewarded A-listers and everyone else on the set is fueling indignation among rank-and-file union members — as evidenced last year by IATSE’s near miss with a strike.
But the looming labor talks aren’t the only explosive issue on the horizon. In recent months, the sentiment has spread in the creative community like a California wildfire that the deal-making structures implemented over the past decade by the streaming giants are costing them the chance to build precious ownership stakes in the TV shows and movies they make.Like everything about Hollywood deal-making, the reasons why are extremely complicated — more on that below — but the emotion that this heavy mood is provoking in the grassroots is not hard to interpret.
It’s raw, unfiltered resentment that is a source of generational friction among established actors, writers, producers and directors.
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