Jeff Sagansky Says New Streaming Business Model “Has To Be Relegated To The Dust Bin” Now

deadline.com:

It’s been a month since Jeff Sagansky’s fiery speech at a NATPE event proclaimed that “we are in a golden age of content production and the dark age of creative profit sharing.” It put the prominent media investor and producer and former top entertainment executive at the center of a conversation about the adverse impact the proliferation of the streaming-driven “cost plus” business model has had on profit participation and ways Hollywood producers, agents and guilds can mobilize and fight to restore backend for creative talent.

The issue of vanishing backend, which is estimated to result in as much as $1.5B of lost income a year for creative talent, is expected to be front and center in the looming WGA and other unions’ negotiations with the studios on new a film and TV basic agreement.I caught up with Sagansky to discuss the Hollywood response to his speech and what he would like to see happen next.

Once again he did not mince words, speaking of a “backend theft” and “predatory behavior on the part of the streamers” and calling for immediate action to end the new streaming “business model-dominimus” that is “inherently wrong.” He used the “cautionary lesson” of the 1997 DVD deal costing creatives billions of backend dollars to urge them to fight now because in a year or two it may be too late. “The fight is now,” he said.DEADLINE: What has been the reaction to your NATPE speech?

Do you have any further thoughts on the new streaming business model?SAGANSKY: Let’s start by reviewing what we know.