Hollywood Producers To Suggest Study Group (will propose to unions that both sides agree)

http://www.postchronicle.com/news/entertainment/article_21276131.shtml

Hollywood Producers To Suggest Study Group
By Staff
Apr 21, 2007

Hollywood executives, faced with possibly contentious contract talks with actors and writers, said they have a strategy that may head off a work stoppage.

CBS, Warner Bros., ABC, DreamWorks Animation and NBC, and Nick Counter, president of the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers, will propose to unions that both sides agree to create a jointly funded, third-party study group, Variety said Friday.

The proposed panel, staffed by entertainment industry experts, would examine how performers are paid for reuse of their work in traditional residuals and new-media platforms, as well as creating new formulas that could be retroactive, Counter said.

"We're not yet at the bargaining table, so all kinds of strategies are under consideration, but I've been instructed to talk about the possibility of a study with the guilds," he said.

The initiative comes as negotiations with the Writers Guild of America are scheduled to begin July 16. The current three-year pact expires Oct. 31. Screen Actors Guild and Directors Guild of America contracts expire next year.

WGA West assistant executive director Chuck Slocum said the producers' group hadn't asked the union whether such a study was needed. (c) UPI

The producers can kiss my *ss!

Who are they going to get for the Study Group - is James Baker available? :sarcasm: