SAG, AMPTP Extend Talks One Week

AFTRA Agrees to Delay Talks with AMPTP

By B&C Staff -- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/23/2008 4:57:00 PM

The Screen Actors Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers agreed to extend their bargaining session by one week, through May 2.

As a result, honoring a request by the AMPTP, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists agreed to delay the start of negotiations between those two parties on primetime television until May 5, from April 28.

The AMPTP issued a notice to the companies it is representing in the SAG talks, alerting them to the fact that it requested that AFTRA postpone the start of its negotiations from April 28 to May 5, and that it agreed.

“At the request of the AMPTP, AFTRA has agreed to postpone the commencement of its primetime television negotiations until May 5,” AFTRA said in a statement. “The AFTRA negotiating committee would like to give the negotiations already underway between the AMPTP and the Screen Actors Guild a chance to succeed and, while AFTRA is ready to begin negotiations now, we believe we can best serve our members' interests by briefly postponing our negotiations.”