Irish actors want a bigger slice of TV deals

Irish actors have moved to get a bigger slice of the action from the monies made here by independent companies selling hits TV shows overseas and online.

The move coincides with RTÉ and Octagon Films striking a major European Netflix deal for Love/Hate with the show to be made available in five European countries.

Siptu is seeking substantial changes to the current television agreement that applies in the industry. It is clashing with the representative body for production companies, Screen Producers Ireland (SPI).

The dispute was referred to the Labour Relations Commission where no agreement could be reached, resulting in the row going before the Labour Court.

In its argument, the union stated that it is seeking to time limit the licensing of its members’ work so as to ensure that additional payments are made to actors when films are sold into new markets, made available on new platforms, or distributed through developing digital channels.

Siptu argues that in doing so “it is merely seeking to have best international practice applied in this area”. It states that it has provided SPI with a draft agreement that sets out its requirements. The union also argues the changes it seeks are in line with the prevailing practice in other English-speaking countries.

However, SPI argue the changes sought “are very significant and have the potential to undermine the financial and commercial capacity of the industry to operate effectively in Ireland”.

The body told the Labour Court that “accordingly it requires detailed proposals from the union to enable it to properly assess their cost and likely impact ”.

The body also stated that the outline proposals submitted by Siptu “takes no account of the scale and resources of Ireland’s production industry compared to the other English-speaking countries. It argues that this difference in scale makes it impossible for Ireland to adopt that model”.

Instead, SPI maintains that in order to remain competitive, “Ireland must follow the practice of other comparably-sized competitor European countries that apply the model currently in operation here”. It argues that the model has proved very successful in the past.

SPI also state if Ireland was to follow the British model, “the change would require the co-operation of Ireland’s public service broadcasters and the approval of the Minister for Communications, Energy,and Natural Resources to alter RTÉ’s Code of Fair Trading Practice”.

Larry Bass, CEO of Screentime Shinawil, said yesterday that he hopes that “sanity can prevail” and that agreement can be reached between the two sides.

The Labour Court recommended that Siptu “set out in detail the nature of the payments it is seeking to have included in the agreement”.

It said this should be completed within four weeks of the date of the recommendation and thereafter SPI should set out in detail within a further four weeks a detailed request for further particulars or for clarification as necessary.

After that, the parties should engage in intensive discussions with a view to completing an agreement within four months.