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Will Streaming Media Lead To A Massive Writer's Strike? (latimes.com)
"A decade ago, Hollywood writers brought the entertainment industry to a standstill when they walked off the job for three months in a dispute over pay for movies and TV shows distributed online," writes the Los Angeles Times. But they're reporting that it may happen again, with the Writers Guild of America now seeking a strike authorization vote from its members.
Streaming services like Netflix and Amazon have transformed Hollywood and contributed to an unprecedented number of quality series being produced -- a phenomenon often described as the new Golden Age of TV. But times haven't been golden for many writers for whom more is now less. Shorter seasons are the new norm, with many series consisting of 10 or fewer episodes on cable and streaming -- less than half the length of traditional seasons on network shows. That has put writers in a financial crunch since many have exclusivity clauses that prevent them from working on multiple shows per season...
"It's getting more and more difficult to make a living as a writer," said John Bowman, a TV writer-producer, and former head of the WGA negotiating committee. Studios are equally dug in as more customers cut the cable cord in favor of streaming options. They're also grappling with a dramatic fall-off in once-lucrative DVD sales and a flattening of attendance at the multiplex. They are releasing fewer titles a year, meaning fewer opportunities for screenwriters... Complicating matters is a lack of transparency. Streaming services operate on subscription models and don't release viewer data, making it difficult to devise a formula for residuals (fees for reruns).
Amazon is a member of the studio alliance, while Netflix "is expected to sign on to an eventual contract." (Though streaming also seems to be hurting the popularity of reruns, which is also reducing the residuals writers receive.) But underscoring the impact of online media, Slashdot reader JustAnotherOldGuy asks, "with all the alternative content available, does anyone care...? Would the writer's strike have any serious impact on your life?"
"It's getting more and more difficult to make a living as a writer," said John Bowman, a TV writer-producer, and former head of the WGA negotiating committee. Studios are equally dug in as more customers cut the cable cord in favor of streaming options. They're also grappling with a dramatic fall-off in once-lucrative DVD sales and a flattening of attendance at the multiplex. They are releasing fewer titles a year, meaning fewer opportunities for screenwriters... Complicating matters is a lack of transparency. Streaming services operate on subscription models and don't release viewer data, making it difficult to devise a formula for residuals (fees for reruns).
Amazon is a member of the studio alliance, while Netflix "is expected to sign on to an eventual contract." (Though streaming also seems to be hurting the popularity of reruns, which is also reducing the residuals writers receive.) But underscoring the impact of online media, Slashdot reader JustAnotherOldGuy asks, "with all the alternative content available, does anyone care...? Would the writer's strike have any serious impact on your life?"
You mean to tell me they were not already on strike? Nothing but remakes, over, and over and over again.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
A decade ago, I quit watching House MD and various other shows impacted by the strike when they stopped mid season. By the time they came back, I had moved on and didn't care anymore. For big shows, the risk is probably minimal, but for the niche stuff this can be a killer.
They are negotiating. Its called a strike.
Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
Service Network Minimum Cable Minimum
30 Minute Story $8,062 $5,432
30 Minute Teleplay $17,343 $8,821
30 Minute Story + Teleplay $24,183 $13,557
60 Minute Story $14,192 $9,871
60 Minute Teleplay $23,399 $17,096
60 Minute Story + Teleplay $35,568 $24,768
Staff Writer - 6 Week Guarantee $4,318/week same as network
Staff Writer - 14 Week Guarantee $4,014/week same as network
Staff Writer - 20 Week Guarantee $3,703/week same as network
Any Level Above Staff Writer - up to 9 Weeks $8,055/week same as network
Any Level Above Staff Writer - 10 to 19 Week Guarantee $6,712/week same as network
Any Level Above Staff Writer - 20 Weeks or More Guarantee $6,036/week same as network
I haven't turned on a "television" in over 7 years, and haven't missed it.
Now, I do confess to watching Netflix content with my wife.
Was visiting a family member at the hospital recently, and the individual turned this "television" on to see what it was all about. "Channel" after "channel" of strange annoying things called "commercials". We didn't like it and turned it off. Grabbed the laptop and fired up Netflix. Much better.
What is wrong with Slashdot?!
You're seeing a massive money shift as people vote with their expenditures, which have to slowly ripple through the thick layers of money and lawyers in Hollywood.
I'm sad for writers that have negotiated bad contracts. A strike will not further their cause.
Money now comes from a different source, the online hegemony. The medium has changed because the delivery system changed, because the old one was leaden and corrupt.
I watched a nice NetFlix produced video tonight on my big screen, which is the place most people can afford to view one, Hollywood and the theater SYNDICATES having made the price of a night at the movies really expensive.
Between Amazon and NetFlix I have most stuff I want to watch, and I didn't have to worry about screaming children, seats, or what the goo is on the seat. I didn't worry about a cable company-- most all of them are universally loathed-- and I could opt out for the same money as opt-ing in if I didn't like the video.
So if you're a writer for TV, get out. You're sailing on a sinking ship.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
Not really.. It's a show designed to make people who made fun of nerds in highschool laugh.
Bully for you. If that keeps you happy, go fer it. And I mean that seriously, not sarcastically.
When winter arrives and the birds fly south, there are awesome shows like Downton Abbey, House of Cards, The Expanse, Man In the High Castle, and on and on. I just finished Jessica Jones and Luke Cage and thought they were fabulous. David Tennant as an evil psychopath, woo-hoo!
You certainly don't have to watch any of it but recognize there is more available than news and reality shows.
Feel bad for these people but nobody ever promised them anything. Hollywood has always been extremely fickle about what it would support and when, and those tastes change all the time. Things go in and out of favor and writers have to cope with that, including periods of starving. OH WELL.
Now, how the audience consumes content and who, exactly, is making it, is changing. We no longer need TV networks to fund content so they can sell ads against it -and THAT is the only reason TV networks bother with shows anyway, to sell ads.
Without TV networks, the content that is funded and produced IS going to be different. The customer is different. If you paint houses and your customers decided they want blue houses and no longer want yellow houses, you as a painter don't get to stomp your feet and demand that people want yellow houses. You paint blue houses or you starve. Pick.
Anyway, the writers are running a huge risk: as the whole distribution model has changed, we may eventually see the writing model change too. Do we really need union writers or could they find freelancers to do it? Of course they could. And with the script to screen path being more streamlined than ever, the union writers are in a precarious position. The client sitting at home won't care who wrote it as long as it is good.
Sig for hire.
The last time hollywood writers went on strike we got a whole lot of unscripted reality TV such as The Apprentice which in turn made Trump a media 'star'. Can't wait to see the unintended consequences of a second strike.
Regards Sinesurfer A Nerd is someone who lives for technology, A Geek is someone who lives for technology and loves it
I can't stand people like you.
You think not owning a TV makes you an enlightened superhero above everyone else .You're not.
You pick crap to watch then blame the idiot box for your choices. You can be watching documentaries and current events. It's not anyone else's fault you are or were stuck on bad sitcoms and reality TV drivel.
These days you have the Internet and can spend the time watching video that teaches you about the world around you or teaches you a skill. You can do university and trade school learning that use to require a lot of money for the price of your Internet subscription and a working machine. What's the bet you blame the Internet for being full of lolcats instead.
I'm sad for writers that have negotiated bad contracts. A strike will not further their cause.
You seem to be confused regarding who we're talking about here. The Writers Guild of America represents writers for all of TV / Film / Streaming / you name it - if it plays on a screen and it's not a video game, these are the people who write it. These are not people who are clinging to a doomed ship: all of that content which you are watching on Netflix, which you are implying is the future of the industry, that is them too.
In fact, they seem to be agreeing with you that this is the future of the industry, or at least that it represents a large portion of that future, and are attempting to insure their place in it. I don't know if a strike will further their cause or not, strikes only take place after negotiations have broken down, but I certainly support the idea of good writing in the streaming future and I like the idea of writers who are able to support themselves in this way.
I doubled my monthly take-home over the past 4 years without ever going on strike or changing the work I do. Striking is *far* from the only option.
The plural of anecdote is not data, and you don't even have multiple anecdotes to offer.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I suppose the company needs to be reminded exactly how valuable their workers are from time to time. Still just rubs me the wrong way.
Yes, it rubs me the wrong way that the company needs to be reminded exactly how valuable their workers are from time to time, too. They should not need to be reminded, especially with such a drastic action. They should be thankful that the workers are there to help them profit, and they should offer them fair compensation for their work without them having to beg, plead... or strike.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Really? Thats the bullshit you are going to comment with - an attempt to use a tired old phrase to somehow devalue my opinion on the matter?
I'm not devaluing your opinion, because it had no value to begin with. It only applied to you, in your situation. It may well apply to others, but from where you're sitting, you don't know whether it applies to any given individual. For many people, there are no other options, because the company they work for is determined not to be fair. That you had other options is utterly and completely irrelevant to everyone else, and the world would have been better off if you had not bothered to share it because it adds nothing to the discussion and only confuses the issue.
If you had told us anything about your situation, it might have helped someone. But all you did was say "I did it, so you can do it" which hey, guess what? Is a logical fallacy.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Adding to guises post...
People are asking why the writers are "striking first" They arent. The WGA has been negotiating the deal with the producers since early March.
ALSO, It's not that the contracts are 'bad'. A decade ago, when most of the last deal was hashed out, there was no original streaming content. The studios were circling the wagons against streaming, and netflix was still doing DVDs. A big negotiating point in tat strike was in fact DVD residuals Streaming was not ignored, it;s just that no one really knew how big it would get and what the side effects of it's proliferation might be. Studios wanted to pay zero residuals on "new media" and naturally the writers werent thrilled with this. So, after protracted negotiations, they struck for 14 weeks and eventually got some concessions. Ironically, the lack of new entertainment on TV was a HUGE boon for Netflix, who got a massive surge of subscribers which wall street didn't really8 notice til the strike was long over. but i digress.
Now that streaming is huge, the writers are pretty glad they held out, but there are fresh issues- the new guys, Amazon, Netflix, etc. don't obey the traditional season paradigm. In the old days, when a writer was hired for ' a season' they got 30 (or whatever) shows out of the deal. Now, with their giant budgets and more elaborate shows, series like "walking Dead might have 16 (but often fewer) episodes per season. Because writers are often exclusive to the show, and they are paid 'per episode', many of them are making half as much. So its back to the table to negotiiate this and similar issues.
The AMPTP is the body that reps the studios, networks and independent producers. They negotiate not only with writers, but with the DGA, SAG-AFTRA, IATSE, the AFM, etc. Suffice to say that they are some hard nosed old bastards. They have a rep for not budging and often, a strike is the only way to make something happen.
By the way, when the writers went on strike in 2007, it was a huge dead weight on production in CA. On a film, lines in scripts get rewritten a little every day During the strike, many directors on already-running films did n ot want to cross picket lines by doing these small rewrites themselves. With writers on strije, there was no one to do it. So a lot of productions stalled, and some stopped altogether. This affects hundreds of thousands of industry workers all over the world.
I was in the middle of a divorce and had just come off a lucrative 18 month job, a little movie about spartans in red capes. My ex's evil lawyer convinced a judge to award payments based on my employed income. I was out of work for about 6 months due to the strike- with the extra monthly whammy to the ex, plus my lawyers (I fired the one who allowed the preceding to happen) I got murdered during the last strike. If this one happens, it wont be as bad, but I don't thing its going to come to a strike.
just my 2 cents.
PS the ex and I get along fine these days, and the kid who was born during the strike is now 10! Yikes!
chris watts íë¦ìS ì(TM)ì
Our poor protagonist spends a lifetime acquiring wealth and power, finally wedding his beloved, and loses it because he didn't respect it. He then finds a group of new friends and sets out on a journey to find some kind of important thing and, along the way, fights many obstacles in order to protect that thing. Among them is a funny man who goes through comedic development and bumbles along with them, only to finally reveal that he only came with them for some initially misunderstood or accidental reason. The journey takes them to a strange foreign land, where they discover many new things, and they return with these new experiences. One of the newly found best friends dies along the way in a suitably tragic way, but is reborn as a wise and more powerful friend. They all face off against a final monster that tests everything they've experienced along the way. Finally, our protagonist reuintes with his wealh, power, and wife, and promises he will never give her up, will never let her down, and will never run around or desert her. And they all live happily ever after; except for the onces that don't.
Price, Quality, Time. Pick none. What, you thought you had a choice?
Nah, the problem is that primarily in order to get higher base wage rates per episode/weekly across the board, the unions fucked themselves over with exclusivity contracts that don't allow writers to work for more than one show at once. With shorter seasons they're making 1/2-2/3s of what they were making when the contracts were designed. Course, had they been paying attention to the internet and the pattern emergin in HBO et al, they would have known that was a bad idea, but I digress.