Fran Drescher’s “Robin Hood Fund” is finally taking off, almost two years after being presented as a major victory for the strikes of the actors of 2023.
The actors of the SAG-AFTRA Union announced Friday the creation of the distribution fund of success bonuses SAG-AFTRA PRODUCERS, a mechanism which will allow a basin of union artists beyond the main stars to share the success of the main streaming projects.
According to the union, the fiduciaries of work and management have agreed with the terms of the fund, which will offer “the very first flow of secondary income to successful broadcasting shows for the dissemination whose remuneration was not directly linked directly to the success of their program”.
Friday, the small print was not provided by the union, which indicated that additional information would be provided in the coming weeks. The announcement of Sag-Aftra came shortly before the union of the results of its national elections, Sean Astin taking the bearing of the president of the Drescher who came out.
That said, the working group has revealed that artists who are eligible for the fund will include stand-in-law, stuntman and substantive actors “with an important link with a qualification project”. This marks the first time that these artists will receive reuse payments for their work.
The union also said that the list of productions eligible for the fund was extended from the previous definition provided by the TV / Theatrical 2023 contract, but did not offer details on additional securities.
“This is the latest puzzle piece in the television / theatrical / streaming 2023 contract. SVOD SVOD programs on streaming channels will share their success with SAG-AFTRA members occurring in these shows,” said Drescher in a statement. “This historic triumph marks the end of my mandate.”
Addition of Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, of the National Executive Director of Sag-Aftra and chief negotiator, “This fund reflects the vision and determination of President Drescher and our negotiation committee during the 2023 negotiation cycle, and now he offers real results.
SAG-AFTRA Friday announcement is much more specific than initial communication around the fund. In 2023, the union said that 75% of success payments launched by highly efficient streaming titles would go to artists in these emissions while 25% would go to a larger group of union members who had not yet been determined.
“Subject to a legal examination and subject to certain conditions, the parties will create a joint trustoed fund to administer additional payments as a streaming bonuses to pay for artists on films designed for initial exposure on SVOD services using a distribution methodology to be determined by the trustee”, the summary of the union of the agreement indicated at the time.
Drescher had wanted the fund to be a means of distributing the loot of the streaming era among a large group of union members, as THR reported at the time. The fund was “designed to share the wealth among more actors – even those who do not work on the programs and films that generated it”, ” THR reported.
Now, the union seems to say that the largest artist basin who will receive distributions from the fund are non -primary artists on these successful streaming programs. The Hollywood Reporter contacted Sag-Aftra to comment.
With the end of Drescher’s mandate as president of Sag-Aftra, the trustees working with Astin and the new management of the union will have the surveillance of the fund in the future. The next series of contractual negotiations of the union with studios and streamers should start in the near future, because the current agreement which ended the 2023 strike expired on June 30, 2026.
