P-C, doubling the residual from .3% to .6% on home video (which includes DVDs and downloaded content like i-tunes) is firmly on the table.

Ah, I see.

And technically there is no table so all the demands are back. Theoretically if the producers agree to sit back at the table, the writers will resume with their last negotiating demands. But nobody's bound by anything right now.

Got it.

I don't know if anybody has been following the Sarah Connor Chronicles production drama, but the show runner has been blogging online about it, and he's not happy.

Josh Friedman's blog:

AMPTP: Wow, Ms. Prostitute. That was some great sex we just had.
PROSTITUTE: Thanks, AMPTP John. That'll be three hundred dollars.
AMPTP: You're kidding. I'm not paying you.
PROSTITUTE: What?
AMPTP: I paid you three hundred dollars for sex last week. I consider this promotional.

P-C, doubling the residual from .3% to .6% on home video (which includes DVDs and downloaded content like i-tunes) is firmly on the table.

I edited my earlier post. Internet downloads, like i-tunes, are not universally considered home video and I'm not sure if writers get paid for them now or not. I also don't know if writers want them considered home video for a .6% residual, or like streaming video, or a third category with a different residual entirely.

Wolfram, from my understanding, they don't get anything from iTunes downloads right now, and they're asking for 2.5% rather than the 0.6% they're asking for DVD residuals (I believe the AMPTP offered them 0.3% for iTunes downloads, but the WGA refused).

Kevin, what SCC drama? Or is it the scheduling thing?

sumi, Polter-Cow linked to Josh Friedman's blog (he's the show runner), and I think you can get the basics from that. It looks like because he won't, for example, go and edit the show, they're saying they'll go and get other people do everything. On his show. So he's not happy.

(I believe the AMPTP offered them 0.3% for iTunes downloads, but the WGA refused).

I think that's right. But I could see the argument that iTunes downloads differ from streaming media and should be bound by the home video rate and not the airing-on-tv rate. (Or some rate in between that takes into account the negligible production and delivery costs on the downloaded product.)

All residuals are based on wholesale. The studios have no control over retail. When was the last time you bought a DVD at MSRP?

The LA Times did a breakdown of where your DVD money goes.

As for iTunes, I'll be honest that I'm not completely clear on that issue. There's this thing called the "Sideletter on Exhibition of Motion Pictures Transmitted via the Internet," which is dated 2001. My understanding is that the WGA believes that, according to that letter, iTunes residuals should be 1.2%. The AMPTP believes that iTunes residuals should be 0.3%, just like DVDs. I'm told that they're in binding arbitration on this one.

that breakdown is a trip. I love Moonves salary figures up there.

My understanding is that the WGA believes that, according to that letter, iTunes residuals should be 1.2%.

That number was quoted in the EW article I just read, except it said it was what the producers were offering, implying that the WGA wanted more (and according to Wolfram's link, yes, they want 2.5%).

The WGA wants 2.5% in the new contract. But the AMPTP has taken the position, in these current negotiations, that electronic sell through -- aka iTunes et al -- is the same as DVDs and should be paid at the same rate.

The arbitration, which pre-dates this negotiation, deals with all electronic sell through since the 2001 sideletter. I think Disney started this. They decided to lump iTunes sales in with DVD sales and pay it all at the same DVD rate.