Why have the WME and CAA held out against the WGA for so long?

 

As we’re sure you’re aware, the WGA has seen a rocky 18 months to date trying to force agencies to comply with its demanded end to packaging fees for writers. So far, the only holdouts have been the CAA and the WME- but why? With an end to the standoff promised soon, we take a quick look at the reasoning behind it. 

On the CAA side, it has an ownership interest in the affiliate whip. WME has ownership stakes in Endeavor Content to consider. That alone isn’t the entirety of the problem, however. It’s that the WGA demands any ownership stakes in production entities be 20% or less… a slightly problematic demand for both.

So there can be a little surprise it’s been tough getting to this point. The CAA had, however, announced in a statement earlier this month that it will accept the bulk majority of the guild’s terms, save a ‘few details’ around wiip to tweak. The WGA still, however, refused to agree to the proposed changes.

Probably wisely, to be honest. While both have agreed in theory to the 20% cap, we’ve seen little firm detail about what compliance will look like or when the overages will be sold. The WGA has had a hard battle forcing some very big interests to comply with its strictures, and going ‘soft’ on the wishy-washy promises and reported lack of transparency over their corporate structures on two such powerful entities could lose the WGA a lot of ground. As they note in their statement, ‘We cannot protect writers from conflicts that are deliberately hidden from us.’

The WGA’s latest statement implies a resolution could be close and lays out some clear steps to follow for both agencies to come into compliance with their demands. With luck, the record-setting standoff could well be resolved shortly, a good thing for the industry at large given the changing climate brought by the global health crisis. 

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