How much does Netflix pay screenwriters?

TV and film writers in the US walked out on Thursday for the first time in more than a decade and a half. Immediately affected are late-night and daily shows; there are simply no staff to maintain the level of writing needed to keep them afloat.

On “The Late Show” earlier in the week, host Stephen Colbert voiced his support for the union involved, the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA).

“Everybody, including myself, hopes both sides reach a deal,” he said. “But I also think that the writers’ demands are not unreasonable. I’m a member of the guild. I support collective bargaining. This nation owes so much to unions.”

An area that won’t be so greatly affected immediately is the world of streaming. Companies like Netflix and Apple TV will be working on much longer timeframes compared to daily late-night shows so their immediate output shouldn’t slow.

However, that doesn’t mean in the future quality won’t dip. During the last writers strike in 2007 and 2008, dozens of shows were paused, shortened, or outright cancelled while writers walked out. The four-month strike resulted in the writers accepting their new terms in a victory for organised labour.

Writers and their relationship with Netflix

Research from the Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) suggests that writers working for streaming services earn more than the sector average. It noted that this was due to contracts signed with Netflix nearly always including two guaranteed ‘steps’ of work, with ‘steps’ meaning the number of times a script has been processed. Sometimes this rises as high as five, meaning writers can charge more for their service.

The median guaranteed total pay for a screenplay deal was $325,000, with a maximum of $5 million with Netflix. This is higher than the first draft median for traditional studios of $293,750 for a one-step deal or $262,500 for multiple guaranteed steps.

Netflix pays a median rate of $375,000 in upfront payments, compared to $300,000 for Amazon. Having previous writing credits also nets writers hundreds of thousands of dollars more in pay. Rewriting Netflix shows is also more lucrative than the same job for Amazon.

Residuals are lower however, due to the nature of streaming on one platform that is unlikely to be released on traditional media like DVDs.

Why Netflix’s writers are on strike

Since 2015, streaming services, starting with Netflix, have been producing their own shows. Currently, “several hundred writers” according to the WGA are employed by streaming giants, who “use the same formats, and draw from the same workforce,” as network shows of the same genre.

However, Netflix, Amazon, Apple TV, and others “have refused [to offer] basic Minimum Basic Agreement (MBA) protections”, rules that govern the contracts offered to WGA members, since they are not mandated to under the previous contract. The WGA has noted that the pay for these writers “are often lower than those paid to their peers.” The writers are demanding that MBA requirements be extended to these shows.