SAG, AMPTP keep on talking

No major announcements follow 17th day

By Leslie Simmons
SAG and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers finished their 17th day of talks on Monday, with no major announcements or messages to its members or the public about where they're at in negotiations.

The sides are set to finish up formal talks Tuesday, one day before AFTRA's scheduled start of its negotiations with the AMPTP. It's likely there will be no firm deal in place between SAG and the AMPTP by the self-imposed 5 p.m. deadline.

Sources indicated Sunday that both sides remain far apart in the negotiations despite SAG's decision to scale back its initial demands on a new DVD/home video residual formula. But whether the AMPTP is biting was not clear; the studios have stood firm with other unions, including the WGA, on not changing the 22-year-old formula already in place.

AFTRA is negotiating on its own the primetime contract for its members after ending its 27-year joint bargaining agreement with SAG. Many in the industry believe the performers union will be able to hash out a deal with the producers in less than two weeks.

If AFTRA and the AMPTP can cut a deal quickly, there would still be enough time for SAG to come back to the table and hammer out a deal with the producers, one observer said Monday. The SAG deal expires June 30.

In the meantime, studios and production companies are already in de facto strike mode and are not greenlighting projects for the summer. Several indie producers have filed for guaranteed completion agreements with SAG, which allows projects to continue on even if the actors do strike.

SAG, AMPTP keep on talking

No major announcements follow 17th day

By Leslie Simmons
SAG and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers finished their 17th day of talks on Monday, with no major announcements or messages to its members or the public about where they're at in negotiations.

The sides are set to finish up formal talks Tuesday, one day before AFTRA's scheduled start of its negotiations with the AMPTP. It's likely there will be no firm deal in place between SAG and the AMPTP by the self-imposed 5 p.m. deadline.

Sources indicated Sunday that both sides remain far apart in the negotiations despite SAG's decision to scale back its initial demands on a new DVD/home video residual formula. But whether the AMPTP is biting was not clear; the studios have stood firm with other unions, including the WGA, on not changing the 22-year-old formula already in place.

AFTRA is negotiating on its own the primetime contract for its members after ending its 27-year joint bargaining agreement with SAG. Many in the industry believe the performers union will be able to hash out a deal with the producers in less than two weeks.

If AFTRA and the AMPTP can cut a deal quickly, there would still be enough time for SAG to come back to the table and hammer out a deal with the producers, one observer said Monday. The SAG deal expires June 30.

In the meantime, studios and production companies are already in de facto strike mode and are not greenlighting projects for the summer. Several indie producers have filed for guaranteed completion agreements with SAG, which allows projects to continue on even if the actors do strike.

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DENVER -- New figures from NPD Group suggest that the Amazon DRM-free digital music service is doing more to grow the overall digital music market as opposed to simply stealing customers from iTunes.

The research group says only 10% of Amazon customers had previously bought music from Apple's iTunes service. While many tagged the Amazon service as an "iTunes killer" when it first launched, the music industry's hope all along was never to cannibalize iTunes sales but rather encourage new digital buyers. NPD's data suggest exactly that is happening.

"The fact that Amazon's early growth does not appear to be at the expense of Apple iTunes is a healthy indication that the digital music customer pool can expand into new consumer groups who have not yet joined the iTunes community," said NPD analyst Russ Crupnick in a statement.

NPD says Amazon is now second only to iTunes in the a la carte digital download category (for those keeping score). The company did not disclose how many users Amazon has attracted in total, however it did say iTunes volume is 10 times that of Amazon.

Some interesting demographic breakdown has emerged between the two services as well. NPD says 84% of Amazon customers are male, compared to 44% of iTunes, but only 3% of Amazon customers were teens, compared to iTunes' 18% (the latter attributed primarily to the popularity of iTunes gift cards.)

NPD says Amazon's growth is likely more due to existing Amazon customers adopting the new service rather than due its lower pricing or DRM-free policies.

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