Barry Diller says strike deals needed by September 1, says executives and stars should take 25% pay cuts

July 16, 2023 3:13 p.m. [embedded content]

Barry Diller, former head of ABC, Fox Broadcasting Company, and Paramount and current chairman and senior executive, IAC and Expedia Group, stirred the pot during a Sunday appearance on the CBS talk show "Face the Nation."

Diller had several Hollywood suggestions for host Margaret Brennan, and comments that are sure to d 'be controversial.< /p>

Among them:

*** As a measure of good faith, Diller said executives and "the better paid” actors should take a 25% pay cut to try to close the gap between those who are well paid and those who are not.

*** He suggested a deadline for strike settlements on September 1. Otherwise, "next year, there won't be a lot of programs to watch. So you're going to see subscriptions being withdrawn, which is going to reduce the income of all these film companies, television companies, which has the effect of result that there will be no programs."

*** This "perfect storm", said Diller, "will potentially produce an absolute collapse of any an industry.”

*** Artificial intelligence fears are "overhyped," Diller said. "Yeah, you can ingest all that stuff and spit out something that looks like Shakespeare, but guess what? It's not the original Shakespeare. And the writers will be helped, not replaced. I don't think most of those real performing arts are threatened by artificial intelligence."

Diller also said that a group of prominent editors, which he refused to name, was considering legal action to stop AI from scraping and using their data without compensation. He was vague on the details of who, what and when.

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