In a win for animation voice actors, SAG-AFTRA members have voted to ratify a new three-year deal for television animation. In the new deal, voice actors are given wage increases and protection against AI replication of their voices.
The ratification vote came in at over 95.5% of members in support of the new agreement.
Under the new deal, voice actors (VAs) will receive a seven percent wage increase in the first year of the contract, which is retroactive to July 1, 2023. Then, they will receive a four percent increase for year two and a three-and-a-half percent increase for year three.
Regarding AI, a big concern has been studios replicating a voice actor’s voice to utilize in other projects without knowledge or compensation. It seems that they won that as well, and according to The Hollywood Reporter, “voice actor” is now a term that can only be used with human actors. The contracts grant VAs a promise that producers must get consent before using their voices to generate a synthetic voice.
Under the new contract, VAs are granted rights under conditions where their voices are digitally replicated and “recognizable” as theirs, including residuals for foreign language translations when AI generates a new dub using the actor’s voice.
The TV Animation negotiating committee co-chairs David Jolliffe and Bob Bergen put out this statement about the agreement saying,
“The foundation of this agreement was based on the feedback we got from members who work these contracts, and that remained the negotiating committee’s focus throughout bargaining. We are proud to have delivered an agreement that offers big wins in those areas.”
This is yet another strike crisis avoided. IATSE is moving towards contract negotiations now for a number of film industry crew and skilled workers. Hopefully, they can reach an agreement in a timely fashion. Tentative agreements have already been reached with some groups within IATSE, including its largest Local the International Cinematographers Guild, which is very promising.
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Source: The Hollywood Reporter
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