Directors Guild of America Members Ratify New Deal
With WGA Strike Behind and SAG Negotiations Ahead, AMPTP Applauds DGA Approval of 'Sensible' Agreement
By Ben Grossman -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/20/2008 4:07:00 PM
Directors Guild of America president Michael Apted announced Wednesday that the DGA membership “overwhelmingly” voted to ratify the new deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
In a statement, Apted noted that the new deal “set a series of important precedents crucial to our survival in this digital age -- among them, jurisdiction in new media, a doubling of the home-video rate as it applies to electronic sell-through and the establishment of a gross-based payment in ad-supported streaming while maintaining our historic fixed residuals where there is continued uncertainty about actual grosses.”
The AMPTP released a statement that either took a parting shot at the Writers Guild of America, a warning shot at the Screen Actors Guild, with its deal up in June, or both.
“The members of the Directors Guild of America have ratified the sensible labor agreement we concluded," the AMPTP said. "Our negotiations with DGA proved beyond any doubt that when both parties are prepared to bargain seriously, groundbreaking new-media labor pacts can be reached without resorting to harmful and unnecessary strikes.”
