Elaine Low, staff writer with The Ankler, joined Cheddar News to break down the latest deal with the studios, why it was such a tough negotiation, and what lies ahead.

<div class="block">Elaine Low, staff writer with The Ankler, joined Cheddar News to break down the latest deal with the studios, why it was such a tough negotiation, and what lies ahead.</div>

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Actors Set to Vote After SAG-AFTRA Reaches Tentative Deal With Studios

At midnight on Thursday, the SA A Actors Union and the alliance of motion picture and television producers reached a tentative deal, bringing the historic 118 days strike to an end. Joining us now to break down all of the details is staff writer for the ler a low Elaine. Thank you so much for joining me. It was the longest actor strike that we've seen in history. Why was this such a tough negotiation? Well, there were a number of things that they were looking for including minimum rate increases protections over the usage of A I which alone is such a fast moving technology and something that the contracts hadn't really caught up to, not to mention streaming residuals another area where there was a discrepancy between the way the contracts were formatted and the way that the industry has been over the last 10 to 15 years. I mean, streaming has really completely disrupted the Hollywood economy here, which is why you saw this six month period of labor disruption among the Writers Guild and Ze Aftra. So we don't know all of the details, the minutia in this contract just yet. I know you hit on some of the major issues, any sort of insight though as to what the actors might be getting on these key topics. Well, we know that they achieved a certain minimum rate increases, although we don't know the exact percentage yet, we know they gained uh a form of consent and compensation over A I again, not sure exactly what the details are as well as a streaming participation bonus. And I'm thinking it might be similar to what the Writers Guild achieved. There is a success based streaming bonus that any time there's a big hit on Netflix or another streaming service. You know, the writers and actors will be able to participate in some of its success. Uh But there's actually a press conference happening later today at Z Aftra headquarters where they're going to read out the terms of the contract. So we'll learn more. Then membership does still need to vote on this deal. How do you expect that process will play out? Well, this was a unanimous vote from Z A Afra Negotiating Committee. It was a 17 to 0 vote, which means that it's a package that the committee feels strongly about and that's more likely to lead to an easier ratification process knowing that the negotiation committee itself isn't split on how they feel about this. Now, the contract will have to go to S A Aftra's National Board today for review and consideration at which point it will go to ratification to Z A Aftra's 160,000 member union. What happens if the deal is rejected? If the deal is rejected? That means the strike continues. All right. So if this new contract is accepted, though, when can people expect to see their favorite movies and TV? Shows get back into production? That seems to be the question for every TV and movie viewer out there. Uh, listen, it, it could vary, right? Because you've just had a six month period where Hollywood came to a standstill. So you're looking at trying to figure out people's production schedules, booking sound stages, locations, crews, um reviving a dormant machine. And so in some cases, it could technically be as quickly as you know, uh later November or through December. But then you bump into the issue of holidays and traditionally, uh Hollywood production is, it goes very quiet, uh you know, around the back half of November and December. So initially, the conventional wisdom was if there was a deal that could come to by mid November, then production could restart in January. But if the studios are eager to get things back up and running, then maybe we'll see it come a little earlier. So we know that the strikes this summer cost billions of dollars in reported losses for the industry. Will there be any lasting effects you think of the strike? Well, I think local experts had put the uh estimate at somewhere around a $5 billion impact to the local California economy. And certainly we saw that all through the summer. You know, I talked to local restaurant owners whose businesses had been impacted when, you know, writers rooms, uh, weren't coming in for orders. Uh, you know, local crews, Ayaz crews and we know that Ayat, you know, themselves and nearly went on strike about two years ago, those crews have been impacted and they have another contract coming up, by the way in 2024. So we're not quite over the labor hump just yet, but it's been a very wide ranging impact to the local economy here. Uh, Elaine Lowe, thank you for joining, breaking it down for us. Elaine is a sc fighter for the anchor.