AFTRA Extends Videogame Agreement

AFTRA announced today it received a one-year extension on its Interactive Media Agreement from videogame companies. Among other things, this will free up time to negotiate the commercials contracts with its once-and-future bargaining partner, SAG. With the extension, members receive a 3 percent increase in session fees and a half-percent increase in health-and-retirement contributions.

Unlike contracts covering industrial films, commercials, and prime-time TV, the interactive agreement is not necessarily bargained jointly with SAG. The guild's executive director, Doug Allen, was circumspect regarding SAG's future plans with videogame employers.

“The Screen Actors Guild Interactive Media Agreement is very important to the thousands of members who work under it, and we look forward to continuing a productive relationship with the companies covered by that contract," he said. "We will be negotiating the Interactive Media Agreement with the industry in the near future, and will save any comments we have for those negotiations.”

The negotiations for commercials have been postponed twice since 2006. The contracts, which expire March 31, are more complicated this year because of the comprehensive study of the industry by consulting firm Booz-Allen.

AMPTP, MEDIATOR TO MEET THURSDAY: Producers will meet with federal mediator Juan Carlos Gonzalez tomorrow as the stalemate with SAG on a new TV/film deal nears the end of its fifth month. The AMPTP has said its last offer, made in late June, is final. A source close to producers reiterated that there is a little bit of wiggle room around the margins, but the terms for new media will not be altered. SAG has said it will not accept the terms because of issues relating to jurisdiction and residual payments.

-- Andrew Salomon