SAGThe studios have heard enough for now.
After going into extra innings, talks between the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers, which reps major studios and networks, and the Screen Actors Guild shut down Tuesday afternoon, with the alliance calling the union's demand for higher residuals from DVDs and Internet content (sound familiar?) "unreasonable."
SAG's current deal expires June 30 and the two sides have been toiling away for 18 days, looking to avoid a repeat of the all-too-recent writers' strike.
"Unfortunate," was how SAG referred to the breakdown in a brief statement.
"In the end, this round of SAG negotiations ended without an agreement because SAG simply refused to recognize the fundamental business and labor principles that have already been accepted by directors, writers and producers," the AMPTP said in a statement.
"Under these circumstances, with SAG's continued adherence to unreasonable demands in both new and traditional media, continuing negotiations at this time does not make sense."
The alliance will instead begin talks tomorrow with the American Federation of TV and Radio Artists, which postponed its own negotiations twice to give SAG more time at the table.
The AMPTP has offered to continue talks after it has hammered out a new contract with AFTRA, which opted this year to enter negotiations separate from the bigger and more influential SAG, despite the fact that they share about 44,000 members.
SAG is reportedly requesting even larger cuts of new-media profits than the directors and writers received, while reps for AFTRA sound primed to get in and get out.
"We're very realistic about what's on the table, what's in the business, what we're after and how we're going to get it," AFTRA President Roberta Reardon told the L.A. Times earlier today.