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TV's Golden Age Is Anything But, Say Writers Preparing To Strike (bloomberg.com)
The world's largest media companies returned to the negotiating table Monday with Hollywood screenwriters, seeking to avert a strike that could cost the entertainment industry billions of dollars and take popular TV shows off the air indefinitely. From a report on Bloomberg: Hollywood is bracing for the worst-case scenario after the Writers Guild of America warned advertisers and investors of the financial fallout and said members will most likely walk out May 2 if the new round of talks fail. Major TV programmers, such as NBC and CBS' flagship network, are scanning their slates of upcoming shows to determine which ones can air without guild writers. Negotiators on both sides are counting on cooler heads to prevail as they seek to avoid a repeat of the 100-day work stoppage in 2007-08 that cost the entertainment industry more than $2 billion, according to Milken Institute estimates. Yet the entertainment business, specifically TV, has undergone myriad changes that are creating new sticking points since the last strike almost a decade ago, and the writers say they haven't benefited.
The title made sense to me. It didn't seem obfuscated.
Dear Writers, please, Please, PLEASE, for the love of God, PLEASE strike. Permanently. Maybe find shows on Netflix, Prime HBO, or Fox News that need good creative writers.
I got rid of cable TV some time ago. Don't miss it actually. I never realized how much time something like CNN, for example, takes up to tell the same news I can read in about seven minutes on Google news, or other online sources. The endless talking heads, droning on and on and on.
I think it would be quite amusing to watch the whole broadcast model just implode. And a lot of their problems they brought on themselves. Broadcast (even Cable) is so 20th century.
I'm not sure what to make of your subject line.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
This is how the free market should work. If wages are really too low, the strike will cost more than just raising the pay for the writers and the networks will cave. If the writers are overpaid, there are still a lot of unemployed people looking for work, the networks can go find new talent who don't belong to the union (they call it guild, but it is acting as a labor union right now).
Notice that unlike the teachers union, the screen writers guild can't pour in cash to elect their bosses who then kick back raises and benefits, regardless of what is best for the larger organization. This is why all public sector unions need to be banned and why so many Democrats in the past were strongly against public sector unions.
If you disagree, please post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like
You mean, apart from saving $1000+ a year, and not willingly subjecting ourselves to IQ squandering nonsense (ie: the typical news), and lowest-common-denominator sitcoms, leaving time free to do more useful things?
When they strike now, what do you think will air in autumn? Stuff has to be written, then shot, edited and then broadcasted. If nothing is written today, then sometime in autumn there is nothing to broadcast anymore and your summer reruns become all year reruns into summer 2018.
It's like breaking an addiction. Or a bad habit. It's like when ex smokers say they never realized how many things they can smell now and how much better food tastes, etc.
It's not pride. It's the revelation of how much better it is to not watch TV any more. The extra time you have. The fact that TV gives you nothing in return. It wasn't even that entertaining actually. Just an effort to find the least objectionable content. And the ads, OMG, the ads, don't get me started.
If you watch some on-demand programming, you can get some better quality entertainment, in less time, and with no commercials. And get up and walk away from the TV because there are also other and better things to do.
Even if I sit in front of the TV and just browse YouTube, it is amazing the great stuff I can find. Videos of presentations from various conferences. Class lectures. There is a guy with a great set of videos Introduction to Higher Math. Various tutorials. It's way better than couch potato cable TV.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
Coming in the next few months:
Summers on TV are great now, not like when we were kids.
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
It is unclear what effect a writers guild strike would have on Fox News.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
I always took it as hyper bold that tv rots the brain. Then I watched the difference between people who watch tv all the time and those who don't watch much at all. The differences are enough that even though I don't have cable I am not planning on getting it or letting kids watch much of it.
See both liberal and conservatives who watch a lot of tv and its political spins va those who don't.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
Traditional TV is dead as a door nail. the programs are so sparse and aimed at dullards that anyone with a nickel in their pocket is on cable or satelite with premium channels added. Regular TV programing went into the ditch when too many ads were run making the shows a nightmare to watch. As viewers declined the programming got worse and they ran ever more ads. Greed killed TV and it isn't doing much for theaters either.
Who cares if any if it ever comes back? So much to see and do in this world the last thing worthy of consideration is whether these glorified advertising vectors air with 20 minutes of "new" content. Listen to podcasts, read a book, watch the thousands and thousands of hours of already released content, play the latest vidya, watch YouTube, go to the park, fly a kite, take a picture every day, play with your kids, tend to a garden, learn something new, volunteer somewhere, go talk to your neighbor, go fishing, go bird watching, lose ten pounds, write the next great app, call your mom, get high, change your own oil, ask your significant other how they feel, go watch the ballet, go protest something in front if city hall, better yet run for mayor, get a penpal, pick up litter, listen to the radio, go geocaching, write a short story, hell write a book, paint a picture, ride a bike, clean your ears, pet you pet, learn origami, shitpost on slashdot. But for the love of God don't worry about television.
On the Oregon Cost born and raised, On the beach is where I spent most of my days
The big difference is that Netflix and Amazon don't rely on advertisers that expect an established release schedule for new material. If writers go on strike for a month or two, then Netflix and Amazon can postpone production for a month or two and suffer no loss real losses. If ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, etc. don't release new programs for a month or two, they lose revenue from those adverts.
The ads are absolute cancer. I never realized how bad TV ads were until I would visit the in-laws and sit down to watch whatever was on to pass the evening by. Holy shit. They hit all the right buttons to get my attention or to get me to stare at the screen and I felt stupid after a set of commercials. I don't know what it is but I know I don't want it in my life.