Amazon settles pay dispute with WGA over residuals for writers

The Writers Guild of America mentioned Wednesday that it had settled a dispute with Amazon, with the Seattle tech firm paying greater than $4 million in residuals and curiosity to writers.

The settlement offers compensation for 37 movie writers on 31 movies produced or acquired by Amazon, the WGA mentioned.

Amazon didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

The transfer comes after WGA gained an arbitration ruling towards Netflix, ensuing within the streamer paying $42 million in unpaid residuals to 216 writers.

“Like Netflix, Amazon had been systematically undervaluing imputed license fees on theatrical films where it was both the producer and the distributor,” wrote WGA West leaders in a memo to members, first reported by Deadline. The guild filed its arbitration declare towards Amazon in 2020.

The concern facilities round how Amazon and Netflix calculated license charges. Under the guild’s minimal fundamental settlement (MBA) with the Alliance for Motion Picture and Television Producers, writers earn residuals primarily based on revenues earned in streaming markets, which is often 1.2% of the license price given to the producer. If Netflix can be the producer and distributor, then the price is computed primarily based on licensing charges between “unrelated parties of comparable pictures,” WGA West mentioned.

Netflix has negotiated separate offers with Hollywood unions such because the Directors Guild and SAG-AFTRA, however didn’t have such a deal in place with the WGA.

“Netflix then tried to force the WGA to take this ‘pattern’ deal,” the WGA West leaders mentioned in a letter to its members in August. “Since it was clear the new formula negotiated by the other Guilds undervalued these ‘imputed’ license fees, the Guild instead took the dispute to arbitration.”

After an arbitrator dominated towards Netflix, the WGA mentioned Amazon agreed to use the identical components for license charges reached within the Netflix ruling.

Amazon Studios has made massive bets within the leisure space, producing the most costly TV sequence ever, “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” and buying the enduring studio MGM for $8.5 billion.

“We’re in it for the long haul,” mentioned Amazon Chief Executive Andy Jassy in a dialogue on the Code Conference in Beverly Hills on Wednesday. “We’re really excited about it and we’re committed to it.”

He mentioned the corporate’s streaming assortment can be a mixture of unique content material and third-party media corporations with channels.

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