• by Wayne Friedman , May 3, 2024

After its nearly four-month 2023 strike -- and resulting deal with the Hollywood studios -- the SAG-AFTRA entertainment performers labor union has now struck a deal with Nielsen to provide streaming content data to verify program performance as part of its studio-strike agreement.

Streaming content compensation was a major factor in the walkout and ultimate deal agreement.

SAG-AFTRA said Nielsen's Streaming Content ratings service will aid the union's “forecasting and enforcement efforts” for streaming bonus money of the 2023 TV/Theatrical Contract.

"The information [Nielsen] provides will give us the means to cross-check the data streamers give us and ensure employers are fulfilling their contractual obligations to our members," said Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, national executive director/chief negotiator of SAG-AFTRA, in a release.

For the streaming part of the agreement, the actors union will get $40 million a year -- $120 million in total over three years.  

The studios, through Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers agreement, will pay 75% of the $40 million to actors on the most popular streaming shows.

These are programs seen by 20% or more of streaming service’s domestic subscribers in the first 90 days of release -- or the first 90 days of any year following that first year of release.

The remaining 25% will go to another fund distributed to actors on lesser-viewed streaming shows. 

Nielsen said this deal expands its data value not just in terms of how content is consumed on TV networks and streaming platforms (as well as being key metrics in commercial sales to advertisers), “but also greatly impacts the financial models on which the entertainment industry operates," said Karthik Rao, Nielsen CEO.