Writers' Guild and PACT sign new agreement

The Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television (PACT) and the Writers' Guild of Great Britain (WGGB) have signed a new agreement for television scripts.
The Personal Managers Association (PMA), representing literary agents, have also been involved in the negotiations, and PMA agents have agreed to operate the new agreement.
The new agreement is effective from February 1 2003 for a minimum of two years and replaces the 1992 agreement.
The agreement covers scripts based on formats owned or originated by producers. PACT and the WGGB will shortly begin consideration of new proposals to cover scripts where the writer provides the format.
The new agreement contains a large number of changes from the 1992 version, many of them of major importance.
The new minimum fee for a 60' slot length script by an established writer is £7,500. Writers will also receive a 'Subsequent Use' fee of 100% of the negotiated script fee against any and all subsequent uses such as repeats, residuals and royalties for UK and overseas uses.
For BBC commissions, there is an additional payment of 15% of the script fee to cover BBC public service uses, such as BBC3 and BBC4.
For further uses, other than UK repeats, writers will receive a 5.6% multi-media royalty on the gross value of sales. Special pre-purchase arrangements may be applied for foreign co-productions and pre-sales.
The payment structure for UK repeats has been substantially revised, with a higher rate for peak time and reduced rates for off-peak and night time. A new feature is a reduced rate for 'catch up repeats'; if a repeat is made within seven days of a transmission the repeat rate is reduced by 25%.
Finally, special royalty arrangements have also been introduced for videos and DVDs.
Andrew Chowns and Bill Brooke of the Producers Rights Agency, WGGB General Secretary Bernie Corbett and Television Committee member Felicity Hayes-McCoy negotiated the agreement.
Corbett said: "Negotiations to update the 1992 agreement have been going on for many years so we are delighted to achieve this result. The agreement has something for everybody and will be widely welcomed by producers, writers, agents and broadcasters."
Chowns added: "The relationship between writers and producers is critical to the success of television productions, and it was vital that we secured a modern agreement between PACT and the WGGB to underpin that relationship. I am very pleased with the final result, and I hope that writers and producers will find it a great improvement."
(GB)