El Cosmico here, it looks like the ad industry may finally be coming somewhat to its senses, realizing that they've got to give more than table scraps to the actors that sell their products. It appears that there has been SOME progress on certain issues, here's the full story from the LA Times:
" NEW YORK--A tentative agreement was reached on Sunday between striking actors and advertising industry representatives to end the longest talent strike in Hollywood history.
A spokesman for AFTRA (American Federation of Television & Radio Artists) said the two sides had reached agreement on the dispute over pay for television commercials, but provided no further details.
The AFTRA spokesman, Dick Moore, said there would be a news conference at 2 p.m. EST on Monday at the midtown Manhattan hotel where the talks resumed on Thursday.
The strike by AFTRA and the Screen Actors Guild, which together represent 135,000 actors, began May 1.
Both sides had said they were nearing a deal when the federally mediated negotiations fell apart on Sept. 27.
Major differences over the pay-for-play formula, used since the 1950s to compensate actors for network commercials based on the number of times those ads are broadcast, were narrowed during the last round of talks.
The ad industry, represented by the American Association of Advertising Agencies and the Association of National Advertisers, backed off its demand to do away with residuals for network television ads.
The actors dropped a demand for expanding network-style residuals to cable ads, a move the industry vehemently opposed.
But advertisers rejected a union proposal for a new, three-tier system of buyout payments. The two sides also remained at odds over compensation for ads made exclusively for the Internet.
The actors announced a consumer boycott of three Procter & Gamble brands on Oct. 10 because the company has used nonunion actors to make commercials.
P&G is one of the nation's biggest advertisers. Several of its brands generate annual sales of $1 billion or more, including Tide detergent, Pampers disposable diapers and Folgers coffee, a company spokesman said.
The boycott was being supported by the AFL-CIO, the umbrella labor organization with 13.5 million members nationwide.
SAG and AFTRA singled out Procter & Gamble because of the company's use of nonunion talent in commercials produced during the strike and its perceived influence over the advertising industry. P&G has a seat on the council representing the ad industry in the contract talks with the two unions.
Advertisers have taken their productions outside of New York and Los Angeles to avoid picket lines and other job actions.
The talks that began on Thursday were the fourth attempt to resolve the strike since the unions walked out on May 1. "
and, here's another version, also from the LA Times/AP Wire:
"A tentative agreement was reached late Sunday ending the nearly 6-month-long strike by actors against the advertising industry, the longest walkout in Hollywood's history, a federal mediator confirmed.
Mediator John Muir would only say that an agreement was reached in New York shortly after 9 p.m. EDT. Details of the agreement between advertisers and two unions, the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, are expected to be announced Monday at a New York news conference.
But two union sources familiar with the deal said that the ad industry agreed to two demands actors had been making since September. They involve payments for ads on cable TV and jurisdiction over ads made exclusively for the Internet. In exchange, the actors agreed to a contract over three years starting when they go back to work. That is likely to happen within two weeks.
The strike, which began May 1, was one of the most divisive in Hollywood's history, costing the Los Angeles economy an estimated $125 million in lost production that fled to other areas such as Canada and Europe.
It also served as a bellwether for what has become the worst labor relations in more than a decade in Hollywood. Next year, both actors and writers will negotiate separately with the major Hollywood studios, producers and TV networks. Because of the length of the ad industry strike, producers have been ramping up productions and stockpiling scripts.
According to the union sources, actors under the new deal will receive a maximum flat fee of $2,460 in the third year of the contract for cable TV ads, the amount actors had asked for when negotiations broke down in September. A source put the increase at about 10 percent, as opposed to an increase of about 7 percent the industry had been offering.
And the industry has agreed that any ads made exclusively for the fledging Internet include union actors, although no pay rates were negotiated. But that would mean that actors in those ads would receive credit toward health and pension benefits.
In return, actors agreed that the contract be three years long starting from the point at which work resumes. That could come as soon as board members of the two unions approve the deal. Members eventually would have to ratify the deal, which union officials expect to occur.
SAG members lost untold millions in commercial payments, with many suffering financial hardships that had to be eased through emergency strike fund payouts.
Union officials had estimated members were losing about $2 million a day, although other SAG officials said the final total would likely be lower because many members unexpectedly received residual payments they hadn't counted on because advertisers, lacking new commercials, relied heavily on rerunning ads.
SAG has 98,000 active members. The union has estimated that as many as 40,000 make commercials, with about 5,000 making a living at it.
The industry was hammered by boycotts and high-profile protests that increasingly involved some of the best-known celebrities, including Julia Roberts, Paul Newman, Rosie O'Donnell and Tom Hanks. Last month, actors launched a boycott of three products made by major advertiser Procter & Gamble - Tide detergent, Crest toothpaste and Ivory soap.
Both sides entered negotiations seeking to make wholesale changes in the way actors are paid for ads. The industry, citing the fragmentation of the network audience, asked that actors give up receiving payments, or residuals, every time an ad runs on network TV and accept a flat fee as they do now for cable ads.
Actors, citing the lucrative boom in cable TV, demanded that they receive residuals whenever ads ran on cable instead of a flat fee. They accused advertisers of trying to squeeze the union by demanding a "rollback" in what they received for network ads.
Last month, the biggest breakthrough came when both sides agreed to drop those two demands. That left them apart on the payments for cable ads and on the Internet issue. Negotiations broke off in September, but resumed last Thursday and continued until the deal was reached Sunday night."
