DGA Board Backs 4-Year AMPTP Deal With AI Protections
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- DGA's National Board of Directors unanimously voted to recommend ratification of a new four-year contract with the AMPTP, with the full membership vote expected before the current contract expires on June 30.
- The contract increases employer contributions to the health plan and raises contribution caps, while also securing wage and residual increases similar to those in the WGA and SAG-AFTRA deals.
- AI provisions establish "directorial authority" over AI-generated footage — treating it like camera-produced footage under the director's control — alongside licensing and transparency requirements and a new employer-funded "skills enhancement program."
- Multi-hyphenate guardrails limit the number of episodes that can be directed by people with no directing track record who are already employed in other capacities on a scripted series — a provision DGA sources flagged as one of the toughest deal points to close.
- The AMPTP agreed to issue a bulletin "explicitly prohibiting" studios and agents from excluding DGA members from directing opportunities outside the U.S. and Canada, and committed senior studio executives to lobbying for a federal production tax incentive via a sideletter.
- The contract introduces a new "Pilot Directed by" credit that will appear as a separate card on every episode of a television series.
Why it matters: The DGA contract completes the major Hollywood union bargaining cycle alongside the WGA and SAG-AFTRA deals, but its multi-hyphenate cap is tailored specifically to career-director unemployment — a problem the other contracts didn't directly address. The "directorial authority" clause is the first contract language explicitly tethering AI-generated footage to existing creative-control structures. Membership ratification must happen before the June 30 expiration.
