Current:Home > NewsMedia mogul Barry Diller says Hollywood executives, top actors should take 25% pay cut to end strikes -WealthX
Media mogul Barry Diller says Hollywood executives, top actors should take 25% pay cut to end strikes
View
Date:2025-04-13 14:48:37
Washington — Media mogul Barry Diller suggested top Hollywood executives and the highest-paid actors take a 25% pay cut "to try and narrow the difference" between the highest and lowest earners in the industry as TV and movie actors joined screenwriters on strike.
"Everybody's probably overpaid at the top end," Diller, chairman and senior executive of IAC and Expedia, told "Face the Nation" on Sunday.
- Transcript: Barry Diller, chairman and senior executive of IAC and Expedia, on "Face the Nation"
Diller served as the chairman and CEO of Fox, Inc., in the 1980s as it created the Fox Broadcasting Company and its motion picture operations, another turbulent time in the industry. Prior to Fox, he served 10 years as chairman and chief executive of Paramount Pictures Corporation.
Actors represented by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists went on strike Friday amid concerns about artificial intelligence replacing jobs and the impact of streaming services on actors' residual pay. Writers represented by the Writers Guild of America walked out in May over similar concerns. It's the first time the two Hollywood unions have been on strike simultaneously in six decades.
Diller said "the perfect storm" led to the current issues in Hollywood which faces an industry-wide shutdown.
"You had COVID, which sent people home to watch streaming and television and killed theaters," he said. "You've had the results of huge investments in streaming, which have produced all these losses for all these companies who are now kind of retrenching."
Diller said it will have a lasting consequences on the industry if the strikes carry on until the end of the year. In fact, he said the strikes could potentially cause an "absolute collapse" of the industry if a settlement is not reached before September.
"Next year, there's not going to be many programs for anybody to watch," he said. "You're going to see subscriptions get pulled, which is going to reduce the revenue of all these movie companies, television companies. The result of which is that there will be no programs. And it just the time the strike is settled, that you want to gear back up, there won't be enough money. So this actually will have devastating effects if it is not settled soon."
But, he said, it's going to be hard to reach a settlement when both sides lack trust in the other.
"The one idea I had is to say, as a good-faith measure, both the executives and the most-paid actors should take a 25% pay cut to try and narrow the difference between those who get highly paid and those that don't," he said.
Diller also said he thinks the concerns over AI in the industry have been overhyped and he does not believe the technology will replace actors or writers, but it will be used to assist them.
"Most of these actual performing crafts, I don't think in tech are in danger of artificial intelligence," he said.
Kara Swisher, co-host of the "Pivot" podcast, told "Face the Nation" on Sunday that Diller's pay cut proposal won't go anywhere and the industry is facing a "Rubicon moment" as it shifts to streaming.
"This shift to streaming, which is necessary and important, is expensive," she said. "Nobody's figured out how to pay for people. Now, the actors are correct as they should get a piece of this and figuring out who values and who's valuable is going to be very hard. But there is a real strain on these companies at this moment in time."
Some CBS News staff are SAG-AFTRA members. But they work under a different contract than the actors and are not affected by the strike.
- In:
- Hollywood
- Strike
Caitlin Yilek is a politics reporter for CBS News Digital. Reach her at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/hausofcait
TwitterveryGood! (8341)
Related
- Don't let hackers fool you with a 'scam
- Walmart offers to pay $3.1 billion to settle opioid lawsuits
- 20 teens injured when Texas beach boardwalk collapses
- Southern State Energy Officials Celebrate Fossil Fuels as World Raises Climate Alarm
- Justice Department, Louisville reach deal after probe prompted by Breonna Taylor killing
- Arctic Methane Leaks Go Undetected Because Equipment Can’t Handle the Cold
- Arctic Methane Leaks Go Undetected Because Equipment Can’t Handle the Cold
- Her miscarriage left her bleeding profusely. An Ohio ER sent her home to wait
- The Best Stocking Stuffers Under $25
- Chase Sui Wonders Shares Insight Into Very Sacred Relationship With Boyfriend Pete Davidson
Ranking
- US appeals court rejects Nasdaq’s diversity rules for company boards
- Hurricane Season 2018: Experts Warn of Super Storms, Call For New Category 6
- Wimbledon will allow women to wear colored undershorts, in nod to period concerns
- Less than a quarter of U.S. homes are affordable for the typical buyer, study shows
- Why members of two of EPA's influential science advisory committees were let go
- Even remote corners of Africa are feeling the costly impacts of war in Ukraine
- Florida woman who fatally shot neighbor called victim's children the n-word and Black slave, arrest report says
- Why Pat Sajak's Daughter Maggie Is Stepping in for Vanna White on Wheel of Fortune
Recommendation
Nearly 400 USAID contract employees laid off in wake of Trump's 'stop work' order
Kendall Roy's Penthouse on Succession Is Just as Grand (and Expensive) as You'd Imagine
Yes, Color Correction for Your Teeth Is a Thing: Check Out This Product With 6,700+ 5-Star Reviews
Wimbledon will allow women to wear colored undershorts, in nod to period concerns
Meet the volunteers risking their lives to deliver Christmas gifts to children in Haiti
Robert De Niro Speaks Out After Welcoming Baby No. 7
How climate change is raising the cost of food
Pruitt’s Anti-Climate Agenda Is Facing New Challenge From Science Advisers