Producers Negotiating With Unions Over ABC Soaps?

When fledgling entertainment firm Prospect Park announced earlier this month that it had reached a licensing deal with ABC to move recently canceled soap operas "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" to the web, questions arose. Thus far, few of them have been answered. Soaps have proved to be too costly for the major networks, and with no set model for making the kind of money on the web that is required to produce a full season year of a daytime drama—roughly $50 million—many wondered whether Prospect Park would have to scale its new acquisitions down to make them work on the web, and how that would affect on-screen talent.

Prospect Park took a baby step today toward addressing those concerns when it issued the following statement:

The love and support for "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" is truly amazing. Since we announced our intention to work with the shows, the fan outreach we’ve experienced over the past few weeks further validates our decision to work to keep them going for years to come.  However we also respect the organizations and processes that are in place so that all can apply their craft within the infrastructure that the entertainment industry has set, specifically in this case with the appropriate guilds and unions. We are in the process of working out the essential terms of our proposed collective bargaining agreements with the appropriate guilds and unions, which we must do prior to firming up deals with above- and below-the-line talent. We will provide updates as needed.

Like all other network soaps, "AMC" and "OLTL" are covered by the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. More on this to come.