Writers spent 148 days on strike in 2023 in a push to get a bigger share of the pie of money made from streaming, and after all that time, some writers may still be wondering what it was all worth.
One of the wins from contract negotiations with the studios was that shows and films that reach a certain tier of success on streaming platforms will qualify for a bonus on top of the existing residuals they receive. Data about how these shows perform also had to be shared with members, but not publicly, so what shows have qualified since the contract went into effect on January 1, 2024 haven’t been revealed.
However, a report in The Ankler on Monday says that at least five streaming series have qualified for and already received payments based on the performance-metric bonuses. Those series are “Bridgerton Season 3,” limited series “Griselda,” and “Avatar: The Last Airbender” all on Netflix, as well as “Fallout” on Amazon Prime Video, and “Ted” on Peacock.
In the case of all five series, credited writers, writers in the writers room, and the pre-greenlight room, are receiving a $9,031 bonus for a half-hour episode or $16,415 for an hour-long episode, per the terms of the contract. That’s a bonus of 50 percent on top of the residual payment. Credited screenwriters on a streaming film with a budget north of $30 million would also get a $40,500 bonus for meeting the threshold, though it’s unclear if any films have crossed that threshold.
Additionally, The Ankler reported that SAG-AFTRA, which negotiated for a similar bonus based on streaming results for its performers, has also had payments go out to shows that premiered on Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Paramount+. A rep for the guild confirmed to IndieWire that report is accurate, and added that writers working on shows for Netflix, Prime Video, and Peacock have gotten viewership bonuses, reflecting the valuable and highly-viewed content they created for those platforms.
While only five shows have been reported to have received the bonus, The Ankler report shared that the bonus is not necessarily limited to those series. However, some of the top shows on Netflix such as “Squid Game Season 2” would not qualify because it’s a South Korean show without WGA writers, and other series like “Love Is Blind” that have topped Nielsen charts are unscripted reality shows.
To receive a bonus, a show has to account for at least 20 percent of a streaming platform’s U.S. users within the first 90 days of it appearing on the platform. Additionally, The Ankler reported that payments must be made within 60 days of that 90-day window ending, so a number of shows that premiered in the back half of 2024 have yet to be paid out. SAG-AFTRA has the same threshold, but actors get paid a 75 percent bonus on top of their residual, while the other 25 percent goes into a fund that is distributed to all members, something the guild has estimated will be worth $40 million annually. The DGA, which did not go on strike during contract negotiations, retroactively agreed to the same terms.
While “Ted” on Peacock didn’t approach the viewing of something like “Bridgerton,” it had an easier path to reach the 20 percent threshold. Peacock has 36 million subscribers in the U.S., while Netflix recently reported that in the U.S. and Canada it has over 89 million subs of its overall 301 million subs globally. A prior estimate in Bloomberg speculated that perhaps only five percent of all Netflix shows would receive the performance bonus.
As many writers previously opined, these bonuses don’t match some of the numbers veteran writers used to receive from broadcast television in residuals, but the negotiations opened a pocket of money that hadn’t been accessible to creators before in this new era of streaming.
