The Australian Writers’ Guild has finalised its first Mini-Series and Telemovies Agreement with the Screen Producers Association of Australia.
The new deal sees a writer’s fees for mini-series and telemovies based on a percentage of the production budget. It complements the Series and Serial Agreement, which used to be the only agreement covering writing for TV.
The AWG Committe – John Doyle (chair), Mac Gudgeon, Tim Pye, Keith Thompson and Katherine Thomson – have announced the following terms:
Fees
The producer will pay the writer a minimum of:
• $30,942 per commercial hour or 3 percent of the production budget, whichever is higher, for telemovies and min-iseries.
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• Effective January 1, 2010 through 31 December 2010 only – for mini-series of 7-13 episodes with a production budget of less that $900,000 per hour, the terms of the Series and Serials Agreement between the parties shall apply.
• Effective 1 January 2011 – for all mini-series that received funding as mini-series, the fee will be the greater of $30,942 per commercial hour or 3 percent of the production budget.
• The writer’s fee covers payment for a treatment, three drafts andone polish.
– 10 percent of the writer’s fee per additional draft
– 5 percent of the writer’s fee per additional polish
• Minimum fees will increase by the CPI on January 1 each year.
Royalties
• Effective January 1, 2010, the writer of a mini-series of 7–3 episodes with budgets over $900,000 will be entitled to a royalty of 3 percent of gross foreign and domesting relicensing receipts in addition to her/his fee.
• Effective January 1, 2011, the writer of a mini-series of 7-13 episodes will receive a royalty of 3 percent of gross foreign and domestic relicensing receipts in addition to her/his fee, regardless of the budget.
Copies of the agreement can be obtained from industrial@awg.com.au