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BY CARRIE L KAUFMAN
Thick among the rhetoric in the current stand-off between ad agencies and AFTRA/SAG are numbers. Lots of numbers. Dizzying amounts of numbers. Each side is throwing out what they think are fair wages for actors to sell products on television and radio.
The basic dispute boils down to whether or not actors should be paid each time a commercial airs, or if they should be given a lump sum for 13 weeks. Currently, actors get paid each time a commercial is aired on a national television Class A broadcast network (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX). The structure under the recently expired contract is:
$478.70
for the 1st run
$122.70 for
the 2nd run
$97.35 for
the 3rd run
$97.35 for
the 4th through 13th runs
$46.65 for
each run after 13
With this structure, if an ad ran once a day on a major network for 13 weeks, an actor made about $5,300. If it only ran on cable, the same actor made $1,014 for the 13 weeks–even if the ad was played twice a day, or 182 times.
Under SAG/AFTRA’s new proposals for cable pay for play, if the commercial runs 182 times–or twice a day–on cable, an actor will get paid $3,708.92. If it runs only once a day–or 91 times in 13 weeks–an actor will get $2,200.
Many network ads do run more than once a day, according to Gwen Guy, executive administrator of the freelance department at AFTRA/SAG in Chicago. With daytime soaps, "A performer can get up to 15, 16 uses in one day just in the afternoon," Guy said. Fifteen runs every day–even during soap hours–can make an actor a nifty $13,000 for 13 weeks.
The norm, Guy said, is more like $8,000 for 13 weeks.
The advertisers are offering $2,575 for 13 weeks of unlimited play on network–the equivalent of 25 runs under SAG/AFTRA’s new proposal. For cable, the advertisers are offering a $1,627 flat fee for unlimited use each 13-week cycle, the equivalent of about 45 runs under the unions’ contract proposals.
AFTRA/SAG Central Region executive director Eileen Willenborg concedes that many cable commercials might not run 45 times and that actors might not earn more under their proposed contract. The problem, according to Willenborg, is overexposure.
With a flat rate, unlimited run, advertisers can run an ad 200, 300, 1,000 times without increased costs in actor’s fees. That means that an actor’s face will be on the tube so much that the actor will become identified with the product. And, says Willenborg, "If you’re so identified because McDonald’s is running an ad with your face 20 times a day, Proctor and Gamble won’t pick you up for toothpaste."
So an actor might make more for the one ad for the one 13-week cycle on cable, but he or she will lose money in the long run by not getting cast in other commercials–even ones that might appear on networks.
This is the rationale behind AFTRA/SAG’s staunch opposition to advertisers. It is what they term a rollback of Class A rates to a flat fee, unlimited run system. "We’re afraid in network that the overexposure will just go wild," Willenborg said.
Advertisers want to pay actors a flat, 13-week fee for one commercial, whether it runs on cable or broadcast. Their proposed numbers are as follows:
• 4.4 percent increase in daily session fees for on-camera principals, raising the rate from $478.70 to $500;
• 6.2 percent increase in daily session fees for extras, raising the rate from $259 to $275;
• a guaranteed flat payment for broadcast networks of $2,575 for unlimited use for 13 weeks, eliminating the current payment each time a commercial is run
• 60 percent increase in cable payments from $1,014 to $1,627 for 13 weeks of use;
• 7.2 percent increase in Spanish commercials, from $1,399 to $1,500; and,
• the equivalent of two daily session fees for commercials made for TV or radio and moved to the internet; ads made solely for the internet are subject to future negotiations.
These might sound like decent numbers and Willenborg concedes that actors might be interested in the 60 percent cable increase–until they realize how much less they will be paid for broadcast.
"They were going to take the money out of our Class A paycheck and give it back to us through cable," said Willenborg.
The unions are seeking not only to retain payment for each time a commercial runs on broadcast, they want to ensure actors get paid every time a commercial runs on cable. They’re numbers include:
• 12 percent increase in daily session fees from $478.70 to $536.15 for on-camera principals and from $359.90 to $403.15 for off-camera principals.
• 12 percent increase in daily session fees for extras–from $259.20 to $290.30
• 12 percent increase in Class A broadcast rates (see chart)
• cable rate pay for play rates at 37 percent of broadcast rates (see chart); and,
• 25 percent increase in Spanish language principals, from $1,399 to $1,749.80;
not less than 150 percent of daily session fee for internet commercials transferred from broadcast or cable; open negotiations on commercials made directly for the internet.
The union proposals also cover Class B and C and regional rates. Class B rates run in a limited number of cities. Class C rates run in only one city. A wildspot rate is for an advertiser who doesn’t have a set slot in a particular show, but who wants to air his ad just once in, say, the season finale of ER or a NCAA tournament game with high local appeal.
The union also wants to classify drivers and stunt coordinators as principal performers, even though they can’t be seen.