The Generations Actors Guild (GAG), now in the second week of withholding their services from SABC1 soap opera, Generations, convened a press briefing today to address the media about the reasons behind the stay-away.
This was against the background of misinformation being communicated to the press, particularly around issues of the actor’s remuneration and a misrepresentation of their demands to the production house and the broadcaster. GAG also wanted to use the opportunity to contextualize certain peculiarities about the creative economy, particularly the TV industry – where issues such as rates, profit share and syndication fees were concerned.
Actors around the world, and South Africa operate in a context where, much like professional sportspeople, their careers have a limited life span. The pay structures of said careers, therefore, are scaled differently in order to ensure sustainability of an actor’s career. This is especially true when an actor is strongly associated with a particular TV show or character, making them less marketable for other projects. Some of the devices employed are:
- Syndication fees paid to actors whenever the programme is broadcast overseas, or residual fees whenever the programme is repeated.
- A fee whenever a brand pays the broadcaster to integrate their product into the storyline, in such a way that it is endorsed by the actors.
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