Grey’s Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo bluntly calls out Netflix over streaming residuals, which is a key issue in the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike.
Grey’s Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo calls out Netflix over streaming residuals, which is a key issue in the ongoing strikes. SAG-AFTRA, representing 160,000 members, recently went out on strike, which has resulted in the majority of ongoing productions grinding to a halt. Similar to the WGA strike, actors asking for changes and transparency over involve residuals and transparency regarding viewership data on streaming platforms are among the key sticking points. Both subjects would affect the cast and crew of Grey’s Anatomy, as the medical drama series is routinely one of Netflix’s most-watched acquired shows.
Now, Pompeo calls out Netflix over residuals in a social media post, a screenshot of which is included below:
Pompeo screenshots a post from Netflix’s Tiktok account, which uses a photo of her as Meredith Grey and uses the caption: “Me when there’s a [bomb] in the chest cavity.” Pompeo, in response, writes her own caption over that same photo of Meredith looking annoyed. Her caption reads: “Also me when @netflix doesn’t pay actors residuals holla let’s talk.”
Why Residuals Are So Important To The Actors Strike
SAG-AFTRA is at odds with the AMPTP, which negotiates on behalf of studios and streaming services, over a number of issues. They include disagreements over protections from A.I., changes to self-taped auditions, and increases to minimums that would keep up with inflation. But a big point of contention has to do with residuals and more transparency regarding streaming data, which impact working actors in a very immediate way.
Many of the SAG-AFTRA members depend on residuals to qualify for health care, with a qualification threshold of $26,000. With residuals shrinking, it has become harder for working actors to meet that threshold. Studios and streamers also have been unwilling to share viewership data on shows, which would allow for the heavily watched streaming series (such as Grey’s Anatomy) to have that success reflected in the residuals received. SAG-AFTRA has even offered to use metrics from third-party firms rather than traditional viewership, which has also been refused by the AMPTP. It’s worth noting that Netflix does share clear viewership data with creators in a few countries.
The rights owners of French programs watched on Netflix in France, Luxembourg, and Belgium get royalties every three months from the streaming service because of an agreement signed in 2014 between the streamer and the SACD, which is a collecting society that undertakes collective rights management for authors. As noted by AllYourScreens.com, rightsholders “get a complete rundown of the number of people who watched the program and payment based on those numbers.” So, streamers like Netflix certainly have the ability to be transparent and pay shows like Grey’s Anatomy accordingly. It might just have to take a strike for that to happen.
