SAG-AFTRA Members Approve TV Animation Agreements

LOS ANGELES – In national voting completed today, SAG-AFTRA members ratified the 2020 SAG-AFTRA TV Animation Contracts with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Members approved the new agreements by a vote of 87.68% to 12.32%.

"This is a strong, future-focused agreement with significant gains for our members," said SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris. “It applies scale wages to more productions, lowers budget thresholds for half-hour HBSVOD programs and delivers additional money for the use of interstitial programs in new media.”

“The industry is changing, and our contracts are changing with it,” said SAG-AFTRA Chief Contracts Officer Ray Rodriguez. “Building off of our successful TV/Theatrical negotiations, the new animation contracts position members to grow residuals from subscription streaming services — the area of greatest growth.”

The agreements — which went into effect July 1, 2020, and will continue through June 30, 2023 — cover animated programs produced for network television, basic cable and streaming platforms such as Hulu and Amazon Prime.

Gains include:

• Wage increases of 2.5% in the first year, 3% in the second year and 3% in the third year.
• A 26% improvement in residuals for high-budget animated programs made for subscription streaming services like Amazon Prime and Hulu.
• A further reduction of the budget threshold that triggers high-budget coverage for half-hour animated programs made for subscription streaming services, from $550,000 to $500,000.
• Scale wages apply to non-high-budget subscription video-on-demand programs of 11 minutes and longer with a budget of at least $25,000 per minute.  
• A 1% increase in the contribution rate to the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan and optional wage diversions in the second and third years that allow the union to shift 0.5% from the wage increase to the contribution rate for the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan or the SAG-Producers Pension Plan/AFTRA Retirement Fund.

The previous TV Animation Contracts were set to expire on June 30, but were extended until July 30. Virtual negotiations with the AMPTP began on July 27. Rodriguez served as lead negotiator for the union and Bob Bergen and David Sobolov co-chaired the member-led Negotiating Committee.