Sunday, May 13, 2007

The 463: Inside Tech Policy: Starving Actors to be Fed by YouTube?

The 463: Inside Tech Policy: Starving Actors to be Fed by YouTube? "On the eve of tomorrow morning's 9:30 am ET Congressional hearing on "The Future of Video", we raise a sleeper issue that promises to eventually have significant impact on online video business models.

It's about the talent. Yes, the actors who make those shows that still aren't reality-based possible are going to want a piece of the Internet video revenue pie, too. There has been noise from the Screen Actor Guild that they are well aware of where video is headed and when their next contract round is up, they plan to make their case well known. So much so that the Screen Actors Guild just created a new-media department. From the Hollywood Reporter:

SAG and other guilds have been ramping up operations dedicated to tracking and researching new-media issues. In the next round of film and TV contract talks, the guilds are expected to demand significant improvements in residuals paid for the re-use of member-created entertainment content distributed over the Internet and other new-media platforms.

"This is the dawn of a new era in entertainment," Friedlander (the SAG new media lead) said. "The developments in new-media formats give actors new opportunities, but it's important to make sure they are compensated fairly for their work, no matter what the format..."

Perhaps this will be raised by tomorrow's hearing witness Phil Rosenthal who is the Executive Producer of "Everybody Loves Raymond" and is also representing the Screen Actors Guild."

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