AFTRA Brass Approve Contract
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

Leaders of Hollywood’s second-largest actors union approved a new contract with studios that grants actors more money for Internet work — an issue that sparked a crippling writers strike this year.
The board of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists approved the three-year deal late Friday, and it will go to the union’s 70,000 members for ratification this month, the union said Saturday. The existing contract was set to end June 30.
The agreement “makes sense for all performers,” AFTRA National President Roberta Reardon said in the statement. “AFTRA members now have the opportunity to vote ‘yes’ for higher pay, improved working conditions, and continued right of consent for use of excerpts in New Media.”
The deal covers only a handful of prime-time TV shows, including HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” the CBS drama “Rules of Engagement,” and ABC’s “Cashmere Mafia.”
The 120,000-member Screen Actors Guild, which is the larger and more combative of Hollywood’s two actors unions, continues to negotiate with the studios. It still has the power to shut down Hollywood film production.
The AFTRA agreement largely followed a script laid out in contracts approved by directors in January and by writers after their 100-day strike ended in February.
It established higher fees for downloaded content and residual payments for ad-supported streams and clips.
It also sets a 90-day deadline after ratification for developing a system for actors to consent to the online use of clips containing their images or voices.
SAG had pushed for more concessions by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.