The Writers Guild of America has reached a tentative four-year deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers group representing studios and streamers, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
On Saturday, Puck reporter Matt Belloni reported on the agreement, saying it adds one more year to the WGA’s usual three-year deal and that it includes “Health plan/pension increases, SVOD bumps [and] protection to police licensing for AI training.” The Hollywood Reporter understands from a source close to the discussions that those details are accurate.
A tentative deal still is subject to a ratification vote by members.
Before talks began, the guild outlined its negotiation priorities for a new contract, including bolstering the union’s health plan, increasing AI protections and improving compensation.
As The Hollywood Reporter has previously reported, the WGA’s health fund cumulatively lost $122 million in 2023 and 2024, according to tax returns, as a decline in Hollywood work and general health care inflation took their tolls.
The union also sought to secure more protections against AI. Though the protections the WGA enshrined in its contract in 2023 were generally considered strong, the union notes that it wants to expand these as the technology develops.
And like all unions, the WGA is intent on boosting compensation to its members. The pattern of demands says the union will be attempting to increase minimum compensation rates, raising minimums for “page one” rewrites, raising residuals for reuse in streaming and focused on pay rates for writers in post-production as well as comedy/variety, quiz and audience writers.
The WGA followed the performers’ union SAG-AFTRA in its negotiations with the AMPTP, with SAG-AFTRA beginning negotiations on Feb. 9.
This will be the first time that the WGA has sat down at the bargaining table with major companies — including Netflix, Warner Bros., Universal and Paramount, among others — since it waged a 148-day strike over issues including compensation in the streaming age and generative AI in 2023.
Since then, the industry has undergone a painful contraction that has squeezed employment at all levels of the business. In 2024, one year after the WGA’s strike, writer employment was down 9.4 percent from one year previously (the year of the strike, which de facto restricts employment) and 24.3 percent below 2022, according to the guild’s annual financial report.
The union’s negotiations were led by chief negotiator Ellen Stutzman alongside negotiating committee co-chairs John August and Danielle Sanchez-Witzel. The AMPTP is led by new president Gregory Hessinger, who succeeded longtime head Carol Lombardini in 2025.
More to come.
