DGA has just made a deal....

[Richard Lightstone, CAS]

Variety says the DGA has announced that they have made a deal.

Details to follow. Let's see how the WGA and SAG react to the news.

Richard Lightstone, CAS

[Richard Lightstone, CAS]

Here's the update:

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117979228.html?categoryid=2821&cs=1

[Richard Lightstone, CAS]

Here are details as reported in the NYT:

In a statement, the Directors Guild of America said Thursday that they had reached a preliminary agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers over a new three-year contract, to take effect when the directors’ existing deal expires on June 30. The union, which represents about 13,500 directors and associated production workers, must still submit the deal to its board and members for approval.

The accord achieves a breakthrough for union members by doubling compensation for television shows that are downloaded via the Internet, and raising by 80 percent the rate for movie downloads. In addition, directors — for the first time — will be compensated for advertising-supported streaming of shows.

Over all, the agreement was designed to reflect the directors’ belief, bolstered by an independent study of industry economics, that digital media will render the companies a negligible amount of revenue during the life of the contract, and will become significant only after 2010.

Key provisions of the contract assure that its formulas governing new media will not become a precedent in the next negotiation, when the economic prospects from new delivery forms are expected to be much clearer. The deal, in effect, postpones a fight that writers are waging now.

[Richard Lightstone, CAS]

Here are the DGA details:

http://www.dga.org/negotiations/index.php

[studiomprd]

The writers have dropped their demand for jurisdiction over Reality and Animation, so talks should be resuming soon...

and now this from the NAB:

" NBC, owing to the writers strike and concerns over the state of the U.S. economy, will eliminate or cut back on the number of big-budget series pilots that air next season, NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker said Tuesday. The decision could save the network as much as $50 million a year, according to Zucker, who added, "It's clear we are in a recession in the United States, and we're going to have to manage our business accordingly"