AMPTP Rips Writers Guild Home-Video Proposal
By Ben Grossman -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/9/2007 4:18:00 PM
The strong and public rhetoric between the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers and the Writers Guild of America continued to fly Tuesday with the Oct. 31 contract expiration date approaching.
Following the sides’ return to the bargaining table, AMPTP president Nick Counter called a WGA proposal over home video residuals “untenable.”
In a statement, Counter said the WGA offered a proposal "to double the home-video residual using specious numbers, a revisionist view of the bargaining history and a complete disregard for the costs and deficits that producers must bear. When challenged on the questionable figures, WGAW executive director David Young said he would get back to us to break down how they arrived at these conclusions."
In its statement, the WGA said it made a presentation concerning its home-video proposal and it gave the AMPTP “contract language on 19 of our 26 proposals.”
“Under the current DVD formula, a writer receives four cents for every $15 DVD sold. Our reasonable proposal is to increase our share to eight cents per DVD. This is far less than the cost of the box the DVD comes in,” said John F. Bowman, chair of the WGA negotiating committee, in a press release.
The two sides are slated to return to the talks Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. (PST).
