Ted Sarandos Blames SAG-AFTRA For Breaking “Momentum” & Contract Talks Ending; “We Want …To Get Everyone Back To Work”

The lead negotiators for SAG-AFTRA and the studios are set to meet later today in what could be the final phase to sealing a new deal and the end to the 117-day actors guild strike.

EXCLUSIVE: A deal may not be in the cards tonight, but SAG-AFTRA and the studios could be heading back to negotiations within hours.

EXCLUSIVE: Today’s meeting between SAG-AFTRA and an expanded group of studio CEOs has just ended as the guild scrutinizes the AMPTP‘s long awaited response to their last comprehensive counter.

EXCLUSIVE: There’s real movement in talks between SAG-AFTRA and the studios for a new three-year contract,

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer SAG-AFTRA is set to meet again on Wednesday with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers after a “productive” day of talks on Tuesday. The sides continue to project “cautious optimism” about resolving the strike, which is now on Day 110. The studios have warned that they must get a deal this week in order to be able to produce partial seasons of scripted network TV series.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer SAG-AFTRA leadership continued to bargain with the major studios on Sunday, but despite growing optimism around the industry, no deal has been reached yet. The union presented its latest proposal to the studios on Saturday. The two sides were said to be engaged in “productive” talks through the weekend.

EXCLUSIVE: Sunday will not be a day of rest for SAG-AFTRA leadership and the studios this weekend.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer SAG-AFTRA is expected to hold bargaining sessions with the major studios over the weekend, as the two sides continue to work toward a deal to end the 106-day strike. The sessions may be held virtually, rather than in person. The two sides met on Friday for the third day this week at SAG-AFTRA headquarters.

EXCLUSIVE: SAG-AFTRA and the studios don’t have a deal, but they are planning on talking more.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer The CEOs of four major entertainment companies offered SAG-AFTRA on Tuesday an improved bonus for the most-watched streaming shows, as well as higher increases in minimum rates. But the studios are still not offering a cut of total streaming revenue, which the actors union has made the centerpiece of its demands to end its 104-day strike. SAG-AFTRA is expected to deliver its response to the studios’ latest proposal today.

EXCLUSIVE: The first day of the latest round of renewed talks between the studios and SAG-AFTRA has ended, with proposed plans for the principals to meet again — possibly in the next day or so.

EXCLUSIVE: Ted Sarandos may have insisted today that he and other studio CEOs want to end the over three-month long actors strike and “get everyone back to work,” but for SAG-AFTRA’s chief negotiator, the Netflix boss is full of nothing but hot air.

Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos expects streaming data to become “much more transparent” in the near term, conforming with metrics for movies, TV and music.

Netflix’s multi-year deal with Skydance Animation, which shifted over from Apple TV+, “helps complement the work that we’re doing” with original animated fare, Co-CEO Ted Sarandos said.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos says that “part “of the reason the streamer has long been tight-lipped about viewership data — even when it came to disclosing numbers to those creating the TV shows and films for the platform — is because of the talent’s own concerns about feeling “pretty trapped” by ratings and box office performance. “At the time we started creating original programming, our creators felt like they were pretty trapped in this kind of overnight ratings world and weekend box office world defining their success and failures,” Sarandos said during a prerecorded analyst interview that went live Wednesday, following Netflix’s report on its third-quarter financial results.

Negotiations between the studios and the striking actors guild may have come to a sudden halt last week, but according to Netflix today everyone is still talking – even when they aren’t.

SAG-AFTRA Chief Negotiator and National Executive Director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland is very happy with Taylor Swift and not so happy with Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos.

Ellise Shafer SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher made an appearance on the “Today” show Friday morning to share her perspective on why the union’s talks with the AMPTP broke down. “It really came as a shock to me because what does that exactly mean and why would you walk away from the table? It’s not like we’re asking for anything that’s so outrageous,” Drescher said.

Netflix’s Ted Sarandos has claimed that SAG-AFTRA asked for a levy on every subscriber to streaming service, which led to the breakdown in talks to end the actors strike.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos shed some light on why negotiations between striking actors union SAG-AFTRA and Hollywood’s biggest producers fell apart. After a blistering statement from the guild in the wee hours on Thursday morning accused the studios and streamers of “bully tactics,” Sarandos hit the main stage of Bloomberg’s Screentime conference and ran headfirst into questions about the breakdown. Sarandos said that Wednesday evening talks ended with the guild proposing a “levy” on on each of Netflix’s roughly 238 million subscribers.