Netflix is hiring a new waste expert following a round of union contract negotiations that saw significant changes to how streamers compensate featured talent for repurposing.
He job offer states that the main function of the new financial analyst, residual role, will be to “interpret and analyze the residual impact in accordance with various guilds, unions and production services agreements and execute[ing] respectively.” The hire, whose potential salary ranges widely, between $60,000 and $290,000, will also “calculate, prepare and process residual payments, prepare and manage financial forecasts of residual obligations and work closely with cross-functional teams such as Labor, Production Finance and Business Affairs to determine the residual impact on various titles.” The work is based in Los Angeles.
Residuals refer to additional payments to talent incurred when a title is repurposed on a platform, such as when a network comedy is re-aired after its initial release or when a film reaches a streamer after its release. theatrical release.
The 2023 round of Hollywood union contract negotiations transformed the way streamers like Netflix pay top talent for repurposing, especially when one of their projects is successful. The contract that ended the Writers Guild of America’s 148-day strike in 2023, for example, instituted a new success-based residual for writers of big-budget television series and movies: Under the provision, scribes receive a bonus payment (50 percent). of your existing fixed residual) if your made-for-streaming project is viewed by more than 20 percent of domestic subscribers in the first 90 days it is in service. This payment is disbursed in addition to the union’s existing fixed residual for transmission projects and took effect on January 1.
Meanwhile, actors union SAG-AFTRA secured a different type of additional residual for streaming projects. Under the terms of its new “streaming participation bonus,” part of the pact that ended the 118-day actors’ strike in 2023, a bonus is activated if a high-budget original film or television series is viewed by more of 20 percent. of US subscribers in the first 90 days after launch. However, unlike the WGA, the actors got a payment that is double the project’s fixed residual, which is funneled into a distribution fund overseen by representatives of both management and the union. This fund will disburse 75 percent of individual bonus payments to the actors of these successful streaming projects, while 25 percent will go to other artists of streaming titles (the terms of this last part of the fund have not yet been announced. have announced).
The WGA, SAG-AFTRA and the Directors Guild of America also won increases to their regular fixed broadcast residuals during 2023 negotiations. The DGA residual for one-hour streaming series on the largest streaming platforms , for example, increased 21 percent in the first three years of use, and its foreign residual increased 76 percent. The WGA and SAG-AFTRA also upgraded their broadcast waste for reuse overseas.
And there may be more changes to streamers’ residual payouts. This year, Netflix will join the rest of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers in negotiations with equipment union IATSE and Teamsters Local 399, where waste will surely be back on the table.