After 148 days of striking, TV and film writers reached a tentative agreement with studios and streamers regarding their work contracts.
Every three years, the Writers Guild of America renegotiates its entertainment writers' contracts opposite the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents studios like Warner Bros. Discovery and streamers like Netflix.
The two organizations began negotiating on March 20 but failed to reach an agreement by the end of the last three-year period, and the WGA officially called for a strike to begin on May 2. Actors in the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists joined writers on the picket line for their own strike beginning July 14.
After several attempts at negotiation between writers and studios, the two parties finally reached a tentative agreement for a new contract on September 24, with the union ordering the strike to end on September 27. WGA members will vote on ratifying the agreement between Oct. 2 and 9, with some writers going back to work as early as next week.
"I feel like we're entering into a new era," says Dylan Guerra, 29, who wrote for season three of HBO's "The Other Two" and has multiple other projects in the pipeline. Despite the AMPTP's early reluctance to negotiate on numerous issues, "we managed to get what we needed and what we wanted."
The AMPTP did not respond to CNBC Make It's request for comment.
Here's some of what the writers got in their new contract.
Money Report
Minimum room requirements, new residuals, wage hikes
Much of the way TV works has changed in the age of streaming, and many of the provisions of the new contract target these changes.
Seasons on streaming networks are much shorter, for example, as short as eight episodes versus 22 or 24 episodes on network television.
As such, writers' rooms have been smaller, offering fewer opportunities to get hired and gain experience, and writing periods have been shorter, offering less opportunity for pay. The new contract sets minimum staff requirements for shows, between three and six writers, and a minimum duration of work, starting at 10 weeks for shows that have not yet been approved for production.
That could mean more early career writers get an opportunity to work and gain experience on the ground. "We created a really strong foundation through this for us to continue to keep growing," says Guerra.
Without an opportunity for syndication and international distribution on streaming services, residual pay for writers has been cut significantly as well. In the new contract, if a TV series is viewed by 20% or more of a streaming service's domestic subscribers in the first 90 days of release or the first 90 days of any year following that first year of release, "you get an extra 50%," says entertainment lawyer Jonathan Handel.
That 50% bonus is calculated based on an existing residuals formula. Per the new agreement, for example, for a half-hour TV episode, a writer could receive a $9,031 bonus.
The contract also hikes minimum pay for various types of television shows and establishes minimum pay for late night talk shows on streaming services, like "The Amber Ruffin Show," which did not previously have established minimums.
New payment processes for feature writing
The new agreement also addresses challenges movie writers have been facing.
A screenwriter could get hired to write a film treatment (or summary), a first draft of the screenplay and a final draft of the screenplay. And while they could be guaranteed pay for each step in the process, "you're kind of at their mercy for when you get to go to that next step," says Kyra Jones, 28, who's written for TV shows like Hulu's "Woke" and ABC's "Queens" and writes features as well.
That makes financial planning extremely difficult. The new agreement sets protection from delays in payment, such as guaranteed pay nine weeks after commencement of a project, for writers getting twice the established minimum or less.
Feature writers have also previously been asked to make edits without pay. Now, "if someone is paid less than twice the minimum," says Handel, "then they have to be given the opportunity to do the first rewrite and of course to be paid for that rewrite."
Screenwriters will also see the same 50% bonus for successful films on streaming services. For example, those who've written a feature with a budget of over $30 million will receive a bonus of $40,500.
Streamers will share some data under confidentiality
Among the WGA's gripes with the streaming services is their lack of transparency, with very little data being released about viewership. Streamers will now share, under confidentiality, the total number of hours streamed, both domestically and internationally, of certain high-budget programs.
Finally, writers won several major guardrails on the use of AI.
If a writer is asked to rewrite a script created by AI, their rewrite will still be considered an original script. Studios and streamers can't require writers to use AI tools if they don't want to and they must disclose to the writer if any material used was generated by AI.
"It's taking AI from the existential and turning it into Adobe Acrobat," says Guerra. It's "a software we can choose to use if we want or not."
Overall, writers appear to be pleased with their new contract. "I am shocked by how good it is," says Jones, adding that when the announcement was made, "it felt like we won."
Disclosure: AMPTP member NBCUniversal is the parent company of NBC and CNBC.
Want to earn more and land your dream job? Join the free CNBC Make It: Your Money virtual event on Oct. 17 at 1 p.m. ET to learn how to level up your interview and negotiating skills, build your ideal career, boost your income and grow your wealth. Register for free today.
DON'T MISS: Want to be smarter and more successful with your money, work & life? Sign up for our new newsletter!
Check out:
'I got a check the other day for $8': TV and film writers share why they're on strike
29-year-old background actor on the SAG-AFTRA strike: AI could mean 'I have nothing new to offer'