One of many largest complaints from Hollywood writers through the WGA strikes this 12 months was the shortage of performance-based pay on streaming content material like they’ve loved for conventional films and TV for years. Luckily, the brand new settlement between writers and studios offers performance-based bonuses for writers, though the construction appears a little bit extra difficult than conventional TV and film residuals.
Streaming platforms have been claiming large viewership numbers for his or her largest films and reveals for years, however precise knowledge on what these numbers imply have been elusive because of a scarcity of transparency. Now, studios will probably be offering a greater glimpse of the particular efficiency knowledge to the WGA and providing efficiency incentives to writers on their largest reveals. Right here’s how writers will earn bonuses for high-performing content material and why the “efficiency metric” components is so difficult.
The newly proposed WGA primary settlement consists of phrases by which writers will earn further pay for high-performing streaming content material, though the components isn’t as easy as conventional film and TV residuals. The wording of the brand new “efficiency metric” is considerably difficult, however in follow, writers will probably be eligible for the efficiency metric bonus for a given film or present if the “home views” (calculated as the whole hours streamed divided by the whole runtime) divided by “home subscribers” (calculated as of July 1st of every 12 months) equals 20 % or extra. Extra 50 % efficiency metric bonuses could be earned in subsequent years following the identical components.
Conventional residual bonus pay for films and TV is a bit more easy, akin to a proportion of field workplace, however there’s a cause streaming is much more difficult. With theatrical films, field workplace is instantly tied to income, that means the extra a film is seen, the extra income it makes. Viewership is equally helpful for conventional TV. With streaming, since there’s (usually) no advertisements subscribers can binge any content material for a flat charge, viewership doesn’t really correlate to income. Focusing on the efficiency metric solely on the platform’s highest-performing content material isn’t an ideal repair, however below the present streaming mannequin, it might be one of the best out there components.
Writers acquired most of their calls for acknowledged within the new settlement, together with protections referring to Hollywood studios’ use of synthetic intelligence in movie and TV writing, streaming knowledge transparency, and performance-based bonuses for streaming content material. These are all new points which have arisen lately because of evolving expertise and a altering trade, however hopefully the phrases of the brand new settlement present a basis to deal with these advanced points as expertise evolves and the trade continues to vary.
Supply: Proposed WGA Primary Settlement