TV and film production in Los Angeles was slow to recover from the industry-wide strikes last fall, according to new data released by FilmLA. Scripted TV production ticked up slightly in the fourth quarter compared with the prior three-month period, but still remained far below historic levels. And feature film production continued to decline even after the strikes ended. The WGA strike ended on September 27 after nearly five months, and the SAG-AFTRA strike concluded six weeks later, on November 9.
There was a time when streamers — led by Netflix, burning a hole in its balance sheet with annual negative cash flow in the billions — were banking on double-digit subscriber growth. And they were spending on content like there was no tomorrow. Well, tomorrow came.
The council told various departments to identify any resources or policy changes needed to expedite the local film and television production in town.
Shares of several big media and entertainment companies tumbled Friday as investors considered the potential fallout from an impasse between cable giant Charter Communications and media titan Walt Disney Co. On Thursday, Disney said it had pulled major networks such as ESPN and ABC from Charter systems after the two companies could not come to terms on a renewal of their carriage license. Charter’s systems reach a little under 15 million subscribers in markets that include New York City and Los Angeles.
Exclusives
The disclosure was revealed in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest employment report.
New York City filming permits declined 53% year over year in August, which marked the first full month of the year during which both the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Television and Radio Artists were on strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
“I write with deep concern regarding your failure to end the ongoing strike,” Fiona Ma said in letters dated August 30 to Disney chief executive Bob Iger, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish (pictured), Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Amazon CEO Andy Jassy.
“At some point you have to say no more,” Drescher, the former Nanny star who is now president of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, said in an interview at the union’s headquarters Wednesday. “I think that it’s taken on a bigger scope, it’s greater than the sum of its parts. I think it’s a conversation now about the culture of big business, and how it treats everybody up and down the ladder in the name of profit.”
Advertisers spent less on broadcast and cable in the 2023-2024 upfront, despite media companies touting overall pricing and volume growth in negotiations.
The Producers Guild, not to be confused with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, noted early on in the strike that it “stands with SAG-AFTRA as its members make the difficult decision to strike against the studios, companies, and streamers that make up the AMPTP.”
SAG-AFTRA launched its interim agreements program that allows independent productions with no direct ties to members of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers to continue filming. The guild has been adding to the list of projects granting agreements since soon after it went on strike against the AMPTP after failing to agree on a new film and TV contract. Under the terms, members “may work on these productions without being in violation of the strike order,” per the guild.
SAG-AFTRA members took to the picket lines outside major studios again today after joining forces with WGA strikers who walked out on May 2. Protests have continued outside the studios and networks in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Comic-Con International: San Diego. This marks the first strike for actors in the film and television industry since 1980 and the first simultaneous strike of actors and the writers unions since 1960.
With the strikes by writers and actors making original scripted entertainment content increasingly scarce, a larger share of ad dollars is going to repeat programming, according to Guideline, formerly known as Dreamscape, which bought spending trackers Standard Media Index and SQAD.
The technology for morphing flesh-and-blood performers into virtual avatars has been improving for years. Now it has become an issue in the actors’ strike.
“I feel like I’m being called on the hero’s journey,’ said the actors union president and The Nanny star.
As of press time, we don’t know if or when SAG-AFTRA will go on strike should its deal with the AMPTP expire on June 30 without a new contract. But with the Writers Guild already on strike, and a SAG-AFTRA strike a distinct possibility, the TV Academy is already starting to mull several different contingency plans on how to adjust the rest of the campaign season calendar — and what to do with the telecast, currently scheduled for Sept. 18 on Fox.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Alan Alda will receive the SAG Life Achievement Award at next year’s Screen Actors Guild Awards ceremony. The actors union announced Thursday that Alda will accept […]
Federal judge James Otero on Wednesday rejected a lawsuit that would have blocked the proposed merger of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. The results of the vote by the roughly 130,000 members of the two unions are to be announced Friday.
The merger of Hollywood’s two leading acting unions, the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, moved closer to reality after SAG’s national board approved the measure on Friday.
The administrators of a $2 billion SAG fund are being accused of covering up an embezzlement scheme that resulted in losses between $5 million and $10 million, according to a complaint filed with the Department of Labor.
NEW YORK (AP) — Mary Tyler Moore will be honored with the Screen Actors Guild life achievement award. SAG announced Moore as this year’s recipient Thursday. The guild says Moore […]
The Screen Actors Guild and its smaller sister union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, have begun formal discussions to merge their unions. Committees approved by the respective boards of the Screen Actors Guild and AFTRA to come up with a plan to combine the unions met for the first time over the weekend.
Momentum continues to build toward the creation of a single actors union in Hollywood. The board of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists on Saturday night voted to continue a series of meetings with the leadership of the Screen Actors Guild about forming a joint union.
After six weeks of bargaining, ending in a marathon session that extended into the night, SAG and AFTRA reached a new three-year deal Sunday with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
