Transcript: Duncan Crabtree-Ireland: 'It Takes Two to Tango...the Companies Aren't Stepping Up'
Transcript: Duncan Crabtree-Ireland: 'It Takes Two to Tango...the Companies Aren't Stepping Up'
SAG-AFTRA's chief negotiator on AI, the state of negotiations and whether an actors strike could really last six months
Elaine Low (00:07):
Welcome to The Ankler podcast. This is Elaine Low with a special edition of the pod, now that we're rounding out week one of the actors' strike and week 12 of the writers' strike. Today we've got a chat with SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland recorded on Thursday, July 20th about where negotiations stand with the AMPTP, artificial intelligence, and Netflix earnings. Take a listen.
(00:29)
In light of Netflix's earnings call yesterday, I don't know if you caught any of it. Ted Sarandos said he's the son of a union electrician, so he's super committed to ending the strike soon, and wondering if you had any thoughts on that.
Duncan Crabtree-Ireland (00:45):
Well, I think that it's great to hear that any of the CEOs are focused on trying to move this ball forward, because we've been saying since July 12th that we wanted to continue discussions and continue negotiations. I'm very eager to see that actually happen, and I think if Ted is committed to that, that'll be a good step in the right direction.
Elaine Low (01:08):
The interesting thing about Netflix being the first to go in earnings season is it's a little bit of a bellwether, and it says that it's forecasting having an additional $1.5 billion in free cash flow because of both ongoing strikes and the timing of production starts, and that it's looking to put some of that surplus cash back into stock buybacks. Do you have any thoughts on that use of the cash?