While somewhat overshadowed by the unfolding dramas hitting the entertainment industry in the wake of the global health crisis, the Writer’s Guild Association standoff with top-tier agencies over packaging has been ongoing for well over a year now. Finally, it looks like it might be coming to an end, and we certainly can’t argue that it isn’t time. BLAKE & WANG P.A take a closer look at recent developments.
This week we saw the WGA send both CAA and WME a proposal which will allow them to finally be enfranchised with the guild. If accepted, it will finally put the 18-month long conflict to bed. There is still something of a large ‘if’ around the matter, however. CAA and WME are the last 2 agencies which haven’t arrived at some form of deal with the WGA, which has been mostly successful in forcing agencies to accept a proposed end to packaging fees for writing services by a Jun 2022 deadline.
The potential deal has been a long time coming, with the crux of the issue being the need for both to reduce their ownership shares in production entities to meet the ‘20% or less’ guidelines set by the WGA. Supposedly terms were accepted last month by the CAA, but the WGA have countered that their asked-for accommodations were unacceptable, stalling the deal again. The WGA also claims a lack of corporate transparency from both agencies around their disclosure of their corporate structures, making it difficult to continue with the deal.
All the same, it does look like the 18-month standoff could well be drawing to a close in which the WGA has prevailed with its wishes to a remarkable extent. We will watch the situation as it unfolds with much interest.
Film and Television 