AFTRA hits new-media stumbling block
Roberta Reardon outlines 'challenging issues'
AFTRA has apparently run into "challenging issues" with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers that may not have a "quick or easy" resolution, the performers union president Roberta Reardon told members Monday in an e-mail.
Among the most high-profile of those issues: new media and how its members "will participate in original new media productions, and under what circumstances employers can exploit excerpts from traditional TV programs in new media," Reardon wrote. "The AFTRA negotiating committee is engaged in thoughtful and pragmatic discussions about how to ensure that performers are best protected as we consider these thorny issues."
Additionally, Reardon said AFTRA's negotiating committee "delivered a strong message" that its members will not give up control of the use of its clips in new media. The AMPTP has proposed setting up an online library in which users can download clips for a price. The producers have said its a good way to fight piracy, however, they're asking actors to give up consent they've long had over the use of clips, outside the scope of promotional use (HR 5/15).
Reardon said AFTRA is mindful "of the hard realities affecting the television business today -- including audience fragmentation, piracy and the other complexities arising out of the fast-evolving new media landscape -- and the impact this has on the wages and job opportunities for working performers."
Reardon told members must be "innovative and pragmatic" in deciding how best to deal with this issue, but that the "industry must also embrace a realistic approach."
The message comes in the midst of a press blackout during the talks with producers on the union's primetime TV contract, which started May 7 at the AMPTP's headquarters in the San Fernando Valley. The contract expires June 6.
"We are confronting a number of challenging issues, and a resolution may not be quick or easy," Reardon wrote. "However, our discussions with the Industry have been professional and businesslike, and we remain focused on continuing negotiations in this vein."
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