AMPTP's Contract Offer to SAG Still Intact
by Leslie Simmons, The Hollywood Reporter
When the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers made its "final" contract offer to the Screen Actors Guild on June 30, it came with a caution: The offer would remain on the table unless there's a drastic change in the economy.
With Wall Street plunging, that day may be here. Since the June 30 offer was made, Disney shares have fallen 9 percent -- and that's by far the least of the bunch. In that same frame, CBS is off 33 percent, News Corp. is down 30 percent, Time Warner is down nearly 25 percent, and Viacom is off 23 percent.
Sources with the AMPTP said Monday that the offer would remain intact -- at least until Oct. 18, when the newly realigned SAG national board meets and votes on whether to bring a strike authorization vote to its membership.
If members are asked to give the board strike authorization, the AMPTP is likely to wait until the results of that vote are in. What that means to the industry is that the current stalemate between SAG and the AMPTP is likely to continue for weeks and could extend into November.
If the actors go out on strike, production could slow or halt throughout the film, TV and Web industries and have serious consequences for media firms, advertisers and agencies.
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