The Directors Guild of America (DGA) has reached a tentative agreement on a three-year deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).

In a statement, the DGA said the deal includes wage increases, a new structure to pay foreign residuals and restrictions on the use of AI.

3. DGA

The Directors Guild of America (DGA) has reached an agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picutre and Television Producers

The DGA, whose current contract is set to expire June 30, began talks last month with the AMPTP, whose members include the Hollywood studios and platforms such as Netflix and Amazon.

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The agreement ends what many had predicted would be long negotiations with the DGA, but it’s unclear what effect it will have on the standoff with writers who have been on strike since May 2 in a dispute over streaming pay and other issues.

The writers’ strike has halted production on multiple shows and movies produced by US studios and streamers, and many feared that a DGA strike would exacerbate a production shutdown.

“We have concluded a truly historic deal,” said Jon Avnet, chair of the DGA’s Negotiations Committee. “It provides significant improvements for every director, assistant director, unit production manager, associate director and stage manager in our Guild. In these negotiations we made advances on wages, streaming residuals, safety, creative rights and diversity, as well as securing essential protections for our members on new key issues like artificial intelligence – ensuring DGA members will not be replaced by technological advances.”

Highlights of the new agreement include:

  • Gains in wages and benefits: a 5% increase in the first year of the contract, 4% in the second year and 3.5% in the third year. Additional 0.5% to fund a new parental leave benefit.
  • Global streaming residuals: A 76% increase in foreign residuals for the largest SVOD platforms so that residuals for a one-hour episode will now be roughly $90,000 for the first three exhibition years.
  • Artificial intelligence: Groundbreaking agreement confirming that AI is not a person and that generative AI cannot replace the duties performed by members.

The tentative agreement will be submitted to the DGA’s National Board for approval on June 6.

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