This proposed contract will give away up to 90% of your future syndication residuals.
REAL LIFE EXAMPLE: If you had a residual check that was $100, that same residual check will now be $10. Yes, you read that right.
Syndication is “off network broadcast television” such as your local tv station. For example, channel 9 at 2pm on your local station might air Law & Order reruns.
This proposed contract lowers the rate at which your syndication residuals are calculated. The result is up to a 90% reduction with a total cumulative loss of $70 million in the first 3 years, with a total loss of $170 million in 8 years
Last year, there was $95 million in syndication. With this new deal those earnings will plummet to $17 million, affecting 35,000 individual performers.
These 35,000 performers believed that the contract they originally signed and worked under would stay valid forever. Instead these contracts are now compromised and will decimate their syndication residual, a.k.a that $10 residual.
Performers working prior to 1998 will take a double hit by having their pension and health contributions taken out of their now extremely reduced residual.
It's important to know that this new formula does not affect the DGA and WGA members as badly as it does SAG-AFTRA members.
The DGA member will split their new 2% of license fee mostly ONE WAY.
The WGA member will split their 2% of license fee TWO WAYS, on average. The SAG-AFTRA member will split their now 6% license fee among the ENTIRE CAST of that particular episode, greatly reducing what they used to receive before with a fixed residual. (Up to a 90% reduction.)
The callousness in which this is being done is extremely disturbing. We don't throw people out of our union lifeboat to supposedly bring others in. We save everybody, especially those 20, 30, 40 year working members who helped build and secure this Union.
Interesting side note: License fees are based upon deals made claiming a “fair value” of worth is being negotiated. The possibility of John yelling across the hallway to Susie saying, “Hey Susie, this show is worth $5 million dollars, how does $1 million sound to you?” is a very real issue and one we did not have to worry about prior to this newly proposed contract when these were fixed residuals. We will be at the mercy of an honor system where audits will hopefully provide safeguards.