Paul Hardart, Columnist

What the Actors’ Union Victory Means for Your Wallet

SAG-AFTRA deserves this win, but to pay for the billion-dollar deal, studios are going to ramp up their strategy of asking customers to spend more for less content.

November 11, 2023 at 1:00 PM UTC

By Paul Hardart

Paul Hardart is director of the entertainment, media & technology program at NYU's Stern School of Business and founding director of the Graduate Program in Media Management at The New School. He was previously an executive at Universal and Warner Brothers.

A necessary cost.
Photographer: John Nacion/Getty Images

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This week, SAG-AFTRA finally ended the 118-day actors’ strike after negotiating a tentative three-year agreement with the Hollywood studios. This marked the longest strike in the guild’s history, securing significant improvements in pay, benefits, and pensions and preliminary guardrails around AI use.

Across the country, members of SAG-AFTRA celebrated their long-fought and well-deserved victory. Kevin Bacon commemorated the strike’s end by reprising his Footloose dance in the attic of an empty barn.