According to SAG-AFTRA, there is no agreement yet on AI as Guild studios provide the latest answer – update

UPDATED with SAG-AFTRA statement: As the back-and-forth between SAG-AFTRA and the studio continues Monday, an end to the 116-day actors’ strike may not be in sight.

“There are several key issues on which we have not yet reached agreement, including AI,” the guild said in a letter to members last hour. “We will keep you informed of events.”

Here is the full letter:

Dear Member,

This morning our negotiators officially responded to the AMPTP’s “Last, Best & Final” offer.

Please know that every member of our TV/Cinema Negotiating Committee is committed to getting the right deal to responsibly end this strike.

There are some key topics we still disagree on, including AI. We will keep you updated as events progress.

Out of solidarity and gratitude,

Your TV/Cinema Negotiating Committee

Today’s letter follows the Guild’s response to the studios’ “last, best and final” offer for a new TV and film deal today.

As Deadline reported, the parties are planning new negotiations that could begin tonight.

AI has been one of the main points of contention between the parties since their first talks began in June. Since then, technology has advanced so rapidly that both sides question how much protection can actually be packed into a new three-year contract.

“It’s not bulletproof, everybody has to realize that,” a studio executive told Deadline today about a possible AI deal. With negotiations between IATSE and Teamsters due to take place next year, the executive management noted that it is only a matter of months before the studios are back in discussions about the next three-year agreement with, among others, the DGA, WGA and SAG-AFTRA.

PREVIOUS EXCLUSIVE, 2.38pm: A deal may not be in the cards tonight, but SAG-AFTRA and the studios could resume negotiations within hours.

We hear the two sides hope to hold virtual talks later in the day and maybe even late into the night.

According to a guild source, no formal meetings are currently scheduled, but a date is expected to be set “very soon.”

It is currently unclear whether the “Gang of Four” executives – NBCUniversal’s Donna Langley, Warner Bros Discovery’s David Zaslav, Disney’s Bob Iger and Netflix’s Ted Sarandos – will participate in these new talks, which are said to be by the negotiator of the Guild is attended. Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, will be involved. and AMPTP President Carol Lombardini.

This possible final meeting comes as the prominent actors’ guild earlier on Monday issued a response to AMPTP’s so-called “last, best and final” offer from 3 November.

That response was “measured,” as a union member close to the talks tells us on this 116th day of the SAG-AFTRA strike. The guild spent most of the weekend “revising” the hundreds of pages of the studios’ proposal — a proposal that represents a response to SAG-AFTRA’s “comprehensive counterproposal” from late October.

“Everybody knows where everybody stands,” a studio insider told Deadline this afternoon. “Now it’s about bringing it home if we can,” he added optimistically. Despite the menacing tone of the studios’ latest offer, this tactic never really ruled out continuing talks between the two sides this week.

With the studio’s offer for SAG-AFTRA containing “a lot to digest,” the details reportedly include the highest salary increases for actors in 40 years, according to a source. Additionally, the AMPTP package included a 100 percent increase in performance pay bonuses for streaming series and high-budget films, which a boatload of CEOs received on April 4. November via a quick Zoom call to inform guild buyers. Perhaps the crown jewel of the Studio package is the so-called “full” AI protection. Overall, executives believe their offer, along with contributions to health insurance, pension funds and more, is “close to what SAG wanted,” an industry source said at the weekend.

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Or as Netflix co-CEO Sarandos told SAG-AFTRA executives Saturday, “We didn’t just come to you, we came to you.” If the drivers thought this would get them over the finish line, they were obviously disappointed. A studio insider, who expected a deal Sunday night, told us that a planned production scheduled for today had to be canceled.

You will remember that it is difficult for TV and feature film productions to shoot even after the writer’s strike ends. SAG-AFTRA protests were in full force, halting a B-roll shoot with extras from the Netflix series “Nicole Kidman” with limited scope. The perfect couple in Nantucket on September 28. It doesn’t matter where Hollywood movies are set; The guild will keep them under control. The problem with The perfect couple consisted of using non-guild members as extras on camera, something that was taboo for local union actors in Massachusetts.

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The combination of the WGA strike and the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike is estimated to have cost the California economy more than $6.5 billion so far. With guild members united but feeling the financial pressure, another side effect of the near total shutdown of production is the loss of 45,000 jobs in the entertainment industry.

If a new deal is reached, the question of how quickly actors will be able to return to work and promote new TV series and films remains uncertain. Given the size of SAG-AFTRA, with 160,000 members, it is believed that returning actors during the contract ratification period may not be as feasible as the 12,000-member WGA, whose members returned before a final vote on their new contracts. .

In this regard, SAG-AFTRA members and their allies took to the streets today in front of studio properties and offices in Los Angeles and New York, with strikes planned for nearly a full week from now. This week, two of Wall Street’s top CEOs will also come under scrutiny, as both Warner Bros. Discovery and Disney announce their latest quarterly results and look forward to the new year.