DGA ratifies contract with producers

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 20 (UPI) -- The Directors Guild of America said its membership overwhelmingly voted to ratify a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

"The vote reflects the strong support and enthusiasm our members have for our new contract. We won important gains such as higher wages, higher residual bases, significant improvements in basic cable, a more secure health plan," DGA President Michael Apted said in a statement posted on the guild's Web site Wednesday.

"We also set a series of important precedents crucial to our survival in this digital age -- among them, jurisdiction in new media, a doubling of the home video rate as it applies to electronic sell-through, and the establishment of a gross based payment in ad-supported streaming while maintaining our historic fixed residuals where there is continued uncertainty about actual grosses."

"The members of the Directors Guild of America have ratified the sensible labor agreement we concluded," the AMPTP said in a separate statement Wednesday. "Our negotiations with DGA proved beyond any doubt that when both parties are prepared to bargain seriously, groundbreaking new media labor pacts can be reached without resorting to harmful and unnecessary strikes."