Ted Sarandos says SAG-AFTRA offered “levy fees” to subscribers – IndieWire

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos revealed late October 11 why the studio walked away from the negotiating table with SAG-AFTRA. He said the Actors Guild’s new proposal was simply “a bridge too far to add something this deep.” Enter into negotiations. ”

Speaking at the Bloomberg Screen Time conference, Sarandos said SAG-AFTRA is seeking a “levy” on subscribers. As Bloomberg interviewer Lucas Shaw put it, they basically wanted to collect a certain amount from every subscriber to their streaming service. Netflix has 238 million subscribers worldwide.

According to Sarandos, before the actors’ strike began in July, SAG-AFTRA originally announced that, in addition to increases to minimums and other streaming residual calculations, streamers would essentially have to pay a percentage of every dollar they brought in. He was proposing a tax on all profits. Negotiations are underway regarding pensions, medical care, and other matters.

Sarandos said what the studio and AMPTP proposed instead was a “success-based bonus” similar to what the WGA requested and ultimately agreed to with the studio. Doing the same thing with actors, he says, would cost studios four to five times what they already pay screenwriters. This is simply because SAG-AFTRA has a very large number of members. He said the guild rejected the proposal, which led to the studio ultimately walking away from the table and suspending negotiations.

“This issue that we resolved with the writers was not only accepted in the contract, it was ratified by a 99% vote of the Writers Guild,” he said. “So I know all these guilds are not created equal and each has different needs and more bespoke needs. But like I said, it works. It rewards success and we agreed to it, but will it be collected on top of revenue or on a per subscriber basis without any insight into revenue per subscriber etc.? It felt like a bridge too far to add depth.”

SAG-AFTRA did not respond to IndieWire’s request for comment on Sarandos’ remarks.

Sarandos said previous talks had been “very productive,” “but what happened last night was neither stable nor progressive.”

SAG-AFTRA said early Wednesday that AMPTP was engaging in “bullying tactics” by releasing details of its proposal to the press. They also said the studio had misrepresented the numbers and over-exaggerated them. They believe the new proposal “would cost businesses less than 57 cents per subscriber per year.”

Here’s a look at the details released by AMPTP after negotiations broke down.