Protect California's Entertainment Industry

The Valley Industry and Commerce Association (VICA) opposes Assembly Bill 437 (Kalra), which would prohibit exclusivity provisions in contracts between producers of movies, television and streaming programs and their employees, radically upending nearly a century of business practices and legal principles that have benefited employers and employees alike. This bill would also destabilize California’s entertainment business, cut opportunities for working actors, and weaken the state’s economic recovery. 
 
The bill would upend longstanding business practices that have made California home to a vibrant film, TV, and streaming business, undermine collective bargaining, and harm the industry that has created a robust middle class of entertainment industry workers. An exclusivity clause provides an artist with generous compensation for their exclusive commitment to a production, often from creation through exhibition. With artist participation assured, the producer-employer is afforded the stability necessary to finance, insure, and arrange all the other elements for the production to move forward. 
 
Exclusivity clauses are extensively negotiated provisions in contracts between producers and talent and are addressed in certain collective bargaining agreements between producers and the guilds and unions that represent them. This is a quintessential topic for negotiations between private parties, who can craft detailed, nuanced exclusivity provisions that consider the specific needs the parties may have on the particular project—not for a one-size-fits-all “solution” like AB 437. 
 
Through their unions, workers in the entertainment industry negotiate collective bargaining agreements every few years. The terms of those agreements have been refined and developed through years of bargaining to balance the needs of workers and the industry. AB 437 attempts to undermine that collective bargaining process by legislating around it. By abandoning the strong, well-working framework and freezing deal terms in inflexible statutory text, AB 437 will reduce advances for all but the biggest superstars. It will make it harder for new artists to get signed and divert time, resources and funding needed to break new acts to those who have already made it.  
 
Passage of AB 437 will upend one of California’s signature industries and harm entertainment companies, artists, and the thousands of businesses that benefit from the economic activity generated by the industry. It would cause irreparable disruption by harming the creation, production, distribution and exhibition of movies, episodic series, and all audiovisual entertainment content across all platforms, and the tens of thousands of Californians who earn their livelihood working in film, TV, and streaming entertainment. 
 
For these reasons, VICA urges you to oppose AB 437.