The Directors Guild of America (DGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP) have come to their first agreement. They will sit down and begin talks.
This may not sound like such a big deal, but for the past month the two bargaining giants were at such odds that they couldn’t even agree to meet with each other.
An official statement issued by both groups said that their talks will commence at the headquarters of the AMPTP, but the date for these talks has yet to be confirmed.
The DGA contract with studios and networks is set to expire on June 30 of this year and one of the major sticking points is the same shared with the Writers Guild of America (WGA) — that being proper compensation for DVD and online media revenues. It seems highly unlikely that the AMPTP will give the DGA what they adamantly refuse to give to the WGA. However, the 13,000 members of the DGA may not be quite as strong on their insistence as those 12,000 members of the WGA which could undermine the WGA strike. That strike is currently in its second month, quickly coming onto its third.
Spokespersons for the director’s guild and the producers said that they want to keep a tight lid on information coming out of the talks and would offer no official comments to the press until their negotiations have concluded one way or the other.
There is still one other organization set for contract renewal with producers this year. The Screen Actors Guild (SAG). Representatives for SAG and AMPTP have been trying to eliminate any problems between the two before their talks begin sometime this spring.
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