Paradigm Talent Agency has signed a new franchise agreement with the Writers Guild of America, allowing the agency to resume representation of its WGA-represented clients for the first time in nearly a year.
Paradigm noted that the deal makes it the first major talent agency engaged in television packaging to sign a new franchise agreement with the WGA. The announcement was made by Paradigm chairman-CEO Sam Gores.
The new agreement expands on the terms of the WGA’s current franchise agreement, most notably extending the “sunset” period for television packaging by six months to Dec. 31, 2021, and doubling the allowable ownership interest in affiliate production from 5% to 10%.
The agreement will run through April, 2025, an extension of one year to the current WGA franchise agreement. Paradigm said the deal also preserves the agency’s right to terminate at any time following 45 days’ notice. The WGA and the agency began talks in mid-December 2019.
“Paradigm’s foremost mission is to serve the needs of artists and the art they create, and so we are excited to announce our new franchise agreement with the Writers Guild, which most importantly allows our agents to get back to representing our WGA member clients,” said Gores. “The issues we had with the existing franchise agreement have been resolved in a way that allows us to shift our business model and to continue providing the high-level comprehensive representation service Paradigm is known for.”
“I want to add that the devasting effects of the Coronavirus pandemic on our industry have brought this new franchise agreement into much sharper relief for us,” he added. “When we began our negotiations with the WGA leadership, we could not have imagined how the world would change, but we feel fortunate that we can now do our part as we face these new challenges.”
Paradigm currently has more than 30 packaged series on the air and in production, including “The Masked Singer,” “black-ish,” “grown-ish,” “The Chi,” “NCIS: Los Angeles,” “Evil,” “Why Women Kill,” and “The Good Fight.”
Pardignm is joining more than 80 agencies allowed to represent WGA members thanks to agreeing to a ban of agency packaging fees and affiliate production. WGA members were told on April 13 by WGA West president David Goodman to fire their agents if the agents had not agreed to bans on packaging fees and affiliate production.
Several mid-sized agencies — Abrams Artists, Rothman Brecher Ehrich Livingston, Verve, Kaplan Stahler and Buchwald — have signed deals with the WGA in the months following the April 13 firings. CAA, UTA and WME sued the WGA and consolidated their antitrust suits against the guild into a single action, accusing the union of engaging in an illegal group boycott.