Actors, Producers Extend Contract

Hollywood’s two actors unions agreed to extend their contract with producers by one year, staving off the threat of a crippling strike or production slowdown.

The deal continues the actors’ current three-year TV and film pact, which had been set to expire June 30. It will give the major studios a chance to focus on potentially difficult talks with Hollywood writers, whose contract expires in May.

The one-year extension, which covers the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, provides a 2.5% increase for actors’ minimum salary rates and a 0.5% increase in producers’ contributions to the unions’ health plans.

Another provision of the deal -- hailed as a breakthrough by SAG Chief Executive A. Robert Pisano -- will allow the unions to negotiate jointly on the terms for actors in prime-time TV dramatic programming on any outlet.

Until now, the unions had joined forces only in talks covering dramas on networks ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox. The new provision extends their coverage to any other outlet, including the WB and UPN networks.

The extension also alters the pay structure for digitally shot programs on WB and UPN. The structure under the new pact implements pay rates more in line with SAG’s better-paying scales, rather than AFTRA’s. Moreover, the contract now will cover stunt performers in prime-time shows on all six TV networks.

The deal will give union officials more time to push again for a merger of SAG and AFTRA. A proposed merger of the two actors’ organizations was narrowly defeated last year.

Studio and union officials had worried that if talks stretched beyond April 1, Hollywood might suffer a production slowdown similar to the one that occurred in 2001, when studios stopped putting into production any film that carried a risk of being shut down by a walkout. A strike was eventually averted that year.

Under the new accord, the parties agreed to begin full talks this fall on a new three-year contract, allowing nine months for talks before the extension on the current contract expires.

Studio discussions with film and television writers are expected to be more difficult, because writers have declared an increase in their share of DVD revenue a bedrock issue.

The companies are likely to resist a major shift in the economics of DVDs, which have become a lucrative addition to the studios’ bottom lines in recent years.

“Of paramount importance was to keep the industry operating, without fear of interruption or a work slowdown,” J. Nicholas Counter, president of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, said of the contract extension with the actors’ unions.

“We look forward to sitting down with the unions in the fall with adequate time to deal with the difficult issues in front of us without risking a disruption of production,” Counter said.