
The Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers appear to be reaching an agreement that would end a historic 145-day strike after the studios allegedly made the union their “best and final” offer.
According to studio-side sources familiar with the ongoing conversations, the companies’ newest offer was made on Saturday. In a joint statement, the AMPTP and WGA said, “The WGA and AMPTP met for bargaining on Saturday and will meet again on Sunday.”
These sources stated earlier in the day that the two sides were quite close to coming to a final agreement and that the studio side had kept working on language regulations on artificial intelligence. Concerns about the unpredictable future of A.I., according to those same sources, had complicated the negotiation. As of Saturday afternoon, the details were with company-side lawyers, who studio sources claimed had been hard at work on language since Friday night. They started working on details at 10 a.m. on Saturday.
According to sources on the management side, the package includes new streaming residual compensation that is not tied to health and pension funds.
The denouement arrives on the fourth straight day of work toward a tentative deal. On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, top company leaders — Disney’s Bob Iger, Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav, NBCUniversal’s Donna Langley and Netflix’s Ted Sarandos — attended the meetings at the AMPTP’s Sherman Oaks headquarters; the CEOs did not appear to be present on Saturday, but representatives from the studios did gather via Zoom.