Amazon ‘Explores’ Back-End Pay Model for Talent on Film, TV Series
After last year’s Hollywood strikes put pay for creatives at the center of the labor dispute, Amazon, Apple and Netflix are looking to change the way they compensate talent.
Amazon is “exploring” a new performance-based back-end pay structure for its direct-to-service films and series, an individual familiar with the matter confirmed to TheWrap. The individual declined to elaborate further on the plan.
The tech giant’s move comes after Bloomberg reported that Apple is considering doling out bonuses to talent based on Apple TV+ sign-ups, how much time subscribers spend viewing their program and cost relative to the size of their audience. According to a memo cited by Bloomberg, stars with one of the Top 3 shows could share up to $10.5 million for a season.
Meanwhile, Netflix is looking to change the model specifically for film rather than TV, according to Bloomberg, though additional details have not been disclosed. Representatives for Apple and Netflix did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
Under the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers’ agreement with SAG-AFTRA struck in November, the guild won approval of the first streaming participation bonus.
Netflix, which boasts 269.6 million subscribers globally, recently announced it would stop disclosing its quarterly figures, as well as its average revenue per paid member, beginning in the first quarter of 2025, as it shifts its focus to engagement.
After unveiling the first biannual report in December 2023, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos revealed that the viewing report — which tallied up over 18,000 titles that were watched for over 50,000 hours — would become even more “granular” over time.
“We currently report our engagement on our biannual engagement report, leading the industry and viewing transparency and granularity,” Sarandos previously said. “Our current report covers about 99% of the viewing on Netflix, but we’ll look at the regularity in different ways that we can make it even easier to track our progress on engagement.”
Meanwhile, Amazon and Apple do not break out their quarterly subscriber figures — though the former recently revealed that it has more than 200 million monthly viewers — and are more heavily guarded with their viewership figures. Prime Video also recently disclosed that “Fallout” was its most-watched title with more than 65 million viewers in its first 16 days of viewing.
Bloomberg was first to report the news.
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