The Rich and Talented Get Richer

The artist who started as a storyboarder at Hanna-Barbera/Cartoon Network working on Johnny Bravo, has made a new and lucrative agreement with an entertainment conglomerate:

... [Seth MacFarlane] has signed a rich, nine-figure overall deal with NBCUniversal Content Studios. Sources say MacFarlane and his Fuzzy Door Productions banner will create and develop new TV projects for across the media giant's portfolio, working with cable- and streaming-focused Universal Content Productions as well as broadcast-leaning Universal Television ... The deal, per sources, is for five years and a total of $200 million. Sources say the deal includes a signing bonus as well as overhead for his Fuzzy Door company. This is the first sizable talent deal since NBCU's studios were aligned under Hammer. ...

Currently, the creation of streamed content has made some people like Mr. MacFarlane even more wealth than they already are. It's also created a lot of new animation jobs, some of them paying well and others less well because union minimums for content delivered over the internet are less than for theatrical, cable or broadcast product.

When Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) began to creep its way into the national consciousness a dozen years ago, there was a fight between entertainment unions and guilds and the major companies whether work so delivered would be covered under labor contracts or not. The Writers Guild of America went on strike over the issue. The Directors Guild of America made it a core issue of contract negotiations. And ultimately, the work came under labor's jurisdiction

But dthe multi-national corporations that control large chunks of the entertainment business carved out there pound of flesh. They argued that content streamed over the internet was "experimental", also new. And therefore very fragile. So they insisted on lower minimum rates. In fact, they demanded (and got) NO minimums.

But now, twelve years have passed, and streaming is neither new or fragile. It's now a major moneymaker, and every big corporate entity from Warners, to Disney, to NBC-Universal is launching its own streaming service. Jobs are relatively plentiful turning out new shows, but high wages for artists working down in the studio trenches? Those are too often scanty, because wage minimums for entertainment distributed via the worldwide web are still ower than older delivery systems. You want to make the BIG money, you need to be somebody like Seth MacFarlane.