ICM Partners Close to Agreement With WGA to End Packaging Fee Dispute
ICM Partners is nearing a deal with the Writers Guild of America that would see the agency put an end to the year plus-long dispute over packaging fees, an individual with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap.
The agreement, which is not finalized, would make ICM the second major agency to break ranks and sign a new deal with the WGA after UTA signed a similar agreement last month.
A deal could be finalized as early as Wednesday.
In UTA’s agreement with the WGA, getting another of the major agencies to reach a deal as well was a huge sticking point. UTA, in a July 15 letter, had agreed to phase out the use of packaging fees within the next two years if the other major agencies agree to do so.
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ICM, which employs more than 500 staffers, laid off roughly 40 support staffers in June, while also committing to increasing the wages of the remaining assistants as well as a goal of 50% hiring of diverse and inclusive candidates for all open positions going forward.
In December the agency sold a minority stake to New York-based Crestview Partners for somewhere around $150 million.
ICM and the WGA are still in negotiations, meaning anything could happen, but if they sign a deal then CAA and WME — the two largest talent agencies — would be the only two majors left that have not agreed to the union’s terms. UTA, ICM, CAA and WME account for more than 90% of the packaging fee deals in Hollywood. The WGA has already signed deals with more than 80 talent agencies for whom packaging fees are less of an issue.
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Last year the WGA implemented a new Code of Conduct for agents designed to end practices it has described as conflicts of interest: packaging, where agencies bundle talent and projects together and bring them to studio as a package, for which the agency collects a fee on top of the commission for their clients’ work; and affiliate production, in which a studio partly owned by the agency is involved in a packaged project. Thousands of writers terminated their representation shortly after the code went into effect.
The WGA, last year, sued CAA, UTA and WME over packaging fees, which the suit called illegal. In April, a judge dismissed most of the union’s claims of unlawful racketeering. An antitrust lawsuit by the agencies against the WGA continues, with a trial that could begin next March. That lawsuit, however, will have to proceed without UTA, as the agency must withdraw from the lawsuit as a condition of the agreement.
Deadline first reported the news.
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