Directors Guild Leaders Addressed Members On Tough Road Ahead As Negotiations About To Start
Image Source: DGA.org
The Directors Guild of America negotiations committee have told members that “there will be conflict” when it comes to the start of contract negotiations with studios and streamers. Among the topics of the negotiations will be boosting wage floors, protecting directors’ creative rights, improving diversity, equity and inclusion within the industry, and seeing that the streaming residuals formula for its members reflects the global growth of the streaming industry.
“Our industry has changed, is changing and will continue to change,” negotiations committee co-chair Karen Gaviola stated during the video addressing the DGA’s members. “The explosive popularity of streaming around the world has transformed how, and where, our work is viewed – and our contracts must adapt to changing production and distribution.”
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Streaming services are an important factor for anyone within the industry, as their continued growth sees many changes in the distribution of a creative’s work. From Kantar’s Entertainment on Demand study in the US, the number of households accessing video streaming services rose by 2.5 million between the period of September to December 2022, bringing the total to 115.6 million households.
With ad-supported tiers on many streaming services allowing access to content cheaper, those numbers are likely to rise further throughout this year. Though as the growth of streaming platforms has risen, the compensation of the creatives who provide their content hasn’t. Thus, the negotiations by the DGA look to fix that, allowing their union members of directors and managers fairer compensation for their work.
Co-chair Todd Holland affirmed to the union’s members that the negotiations committee “won’t rest until we win a strong contract today that builds a bridge to continued DGA prosperity into the future.” Committee chair Jon Avnet added to that: “Together, we are an unstoppable union. We’ve negotiated world-class contracts because we deserve them.”
The Writers Guild of America’s negotiations failed to reach a consensus on topics such as the regulation of artificial intelligence, leading to strike action. The DGA stands in solidarity with their fellow creatives, with Holland stating, “We hope they win a fair contract on terms that respects their vital contributions to this industry. We are all union workers. They write the stories that we direct, that actors perform – and with the help of our craftspeople and drivers, together we bring these stories to life.”
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