STRIKE UPDATE: AMPTP to present a new proposal?

From Deadline Hollywood Daily:

EXCLUSIVE: Moguls Supposed To Present A Better Offer To Writers At Talks Today

I was told last night by a top Hollywood CEO that the moguls had decided to allow AMPTP to put on the negotiating table a sweetened deal at Talks Day #4 today. “The producers are trying to put something on the table tomorrow [Thursday] that will jaw this loose. It will include streaming and EST [electronic sell-through] and all the rest,” the source said specifically.

The problem is I can’t confirm yet that the AMPTP has indeed bettered its offer today. But this is the sweetened proposal everyone has been talking about since before this new round of talks resumed. The really key issue is a better formula for ESTs, something that back on Sunday November 4th, the WGA negotiators had been led to believe was coming during that session so they dropped their DVD residual demands. Only to put them back on the table when the ESTs proposal never happened.

Read full article here

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Edited to add: Okay, I’ve had a second to read through this a bit more carefully, and I’ve got to say, I’m really unimpressed. I want the strike to end as badly as I suppose anyone without a direct investment could want it, but this proposal still seems incredibly unfair to the writers. It continues to propose a residual-free six week period on electronic sell-through and internet streams, which is honestly neither here nor there for me, as I don’t know enough about broadcast history to know whether this is a reasonable timeframe or not (it seems excessive, but I’m no expert). However, it also sticks to the AMPTP’s “we’re not sharing ad revenue on streaming media” line, which seems ridiculous to me. How do the studios propose to calculate what is owed to the writers, if not by using some formula that takes into account what the studios are making off of new media (and that should certainly include ad revenue, in my opinion)? I’m not saying that there isn’t room for abuse even in a formula like that, but without such an arrangement, I think the guild is going to have impossible time establishing exactly what is owed to its members, and when. I need to think some more about this, but this “sweetened” deal is still leaving me with a fairly sour taste in my mouth at the moment.

On a (relatively) happier note, we can add Conan O’Brien’s name to the list of late night nice guys: he’s going to pay his staff out of his own pocket when they’re laid off as of Friday (the arrangement is on a week-to-week basis for now). Bravo, Mr. O’Brien. This type of generosity and concern is incredibly heartwarming to see, and it really says a lot about the kind of human being you are.