We also made some progress in our creative rights proposals, but more needs to be done before these issues are resolved. Your negotiating committee decided to suspend this round of negotiations so we could lift the press blackout and communicate with our members about the status of negotiations. Given that it had become clear that the companies were not going to improve their economic offer in the early round of talks, it was important to lift the blackout and let you know about the companies' proposed rollbacks. A date has not been set. There are several and they are dreadful.
Double burst refers to the practice of running a television show twice during a set period of time.
These figures do not even include the loss of jobs that would occur if all of these discounted reruns replaced first run programming on first run jobs. We remain significantly apart regarding residuals. The companies have offered no increases in Basic Cable residuals for reuse of free TV and Pay TV shows, and no increases in residuals for videocassettes and DVDs. The companies demanded the right to distribute, without payment, scripts of original screenplays on videocassettes and DVDs released within 12 months of a film's theatrical release. Under the current MBA terms, this is a publication right reserved for writers as part of their separated rights, and a company must negotiate to buy these rights.