During the summer of 2023, Hollywood weathered the longest strike by Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists in the performers union’s history.
One of the final negotiation points, a long-promised “Robin Hood” fund meant to share the benefits of streaming success, has finally been set up.
Last week — moments before the labor union named their new president, Sean Astin — the guild announced that a SAG-AFTRA Producers Success Distribution Fund had been formally established. Performers in popular made-for-streaming shows who previously might not have been compensated for their show’s viewership can now earn their “first-ever secondary income stream,” the labor group said in a statement.
The system allows for revenue to be shared with a pool of union workers, such as stand-ins, stunt riggers and background actors.
How does the fund work?
As part of the contract that ended the 118-day strike, SAG-AFTRA and the studios agreed to set up a bonus system for actors whose shows reached a certain viewership threshold. Some of those funds would be earmarked for a newly created streaming payment distribution fund to benefit additional performers.
When a large budget streaming project attracts 20% of the streaming service’s audience in the first 90 days of release, it typically generates a bonus. Seventy-five percent of that bonus goes to the actors in the project, and 25% will now be put in the fund to be jointly administered by SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the group that represents the studios and streaming firms in labor dealings. SAG-AFTRA estimates that, over the three-year contract term, the total streaming bonus could equal around $120 million.
Who benefits?
For now, recipients are restricted to those who work on streaming projects that first aired on or after Jan. 1, 2024.
Why is this important to actors?
The fund was spearheaded by Fran Drescher, the outgoing SAG-AFTRA union president, as a way to help workers adapt to the streaming business model. Before streaming, actors would receive payment when a popular show went into syndication. But in streaming, there’s not a direct equivalent for syndication, and that means the actors whose programs don’t meet the bonus criteria are left behind.
“This is the last puzzle piece from the 2023 TV/Theatrical/Streaming contract,” said Dresher in a news release. “And for the first time in our union’s history, members from both the stunts and background communities who work a minimum of 25 days will receive the bonus too.”
The landscape of Hollywood actors is made up of haves and have-nots, with the highly paid stars making up a small minority of union membership. SAG-AFTRA is made up of around 160,000 members, but only 14% make at least $26,470 to qualify for the union’s health insurance and 7% earn $80,000 or more a year. The idea of the bonus fund is to help make acting a more sustainable career in the streaming era.
What’s next?
A negotiating committee of trustees, from both the employers and the union, is set to decide on how the money will be distributed. The union has also secured an expanded list of eligible productions. Timing and eligibility has yet to be disclosed, as well as the fund’s fine print.
SAG-AFTRA’s current contract is set to expire in June 2026.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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