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Posts with tag: writers-strike | Return to MediaCynic.com Homepage
Studios Making a Big Mistake In Writers' Strike Negotiating Tactics
The AMPTP (Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers) walked out on the negotiations with the WGA (Writers' Guild) last Friday after issuing a remarkably petulant ultimatum: that the writers pull off the table their demand for jurisdiction over reality television and animation. The WGA refused to negotiate against itself but said it would be happy to keep talking. The AMPTP walked out in a huff.
The PR firm hired by the AMPTP has really misjudged this strike situation. Never in the history of Hollywood has there been such support for the writers who create everyone's favorite scripted programs: from Heroes to Lost to Gray's Anatomy, fans now know who creates those shows because they watch them on podcasts. Fans are participating in the strike by marching in picket lines, mailing in pencils to the studios as a protest and by visiting the very funny new websites created by the bored, out of work writers of the David Letterman Show.
The AMPTP is already starting to feel the pinch of the strike, major networks are having to compensate
advertisers with additional hours of ads or -- in NBC's case -- having to give back actual cash because the network has essentially run out of episodes of popular scripted programming. The WGA leadership isn't going to cave, and neither is the rank and file writers who know that if they don't get a contract in which they are paid residuals for new media, that they won't be paid anything at all when most programming goes online in the future. It's time for the AMPTP to come back to the table and realize that times have changed. Writers must be paid for new media.
Posted on December 12, 2007
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Politicians Ponder the Writers' Strike
We are now in the fourth day of the Writers' Strike, which shows no sign of ending anytime soon. The Writers Guild of America ("WGA") is striking after negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers
("AMPTP") failed at the last minute. For the television viewers, this means that their favorite scripted shows - dramas, comedies and the like - are all about to go off the air, along with all the talk shows. If the strike runs as long as the last time eighteen years ago, the studios stand to lose $1 billion. Yet for some reason the media conglomerates are being obstinate, refusing to give writers even a tiny share of the residuals for shows that are shown in digital format, such as those that are downloadable on the Internet or cellphones.
In the old days, studios had staff writers and actors under contract. They got a salary, benefits and worked on whatever the studio told them to. Under the current system, writers are hired on a contract basis with no benefits or job security. At any one time 49% of the WGA writers are unemployed. Currently, the writers get no residuals at all from television shows that are shown online in their entirety, even if there is a commercial embedded into it. DVDs are going away and the writers want to make sure they get their tiny percentage (and, believe me, it is tiny) on the new media that will replace DVDs. The studios won't pay; hence, the strike. For the writers, it's do or die time. If they don't get paid on new media in the future, they will have no future when all media goes digital.
Enter the politicians. Bill Clinton reportedly is interested in brokering a deal before the economic repercussions to all parties becomes devastating. The Mayor of Los Angeles has offered to mediate, but the AMPTP turned him down flat. Governor Schwarzenegger has a vested interest in solving the strike, before the situation costs California millions of dollars in tax revenue. So far, the Governor hasn't done anything but make a few phone calls and at least one inaccurate statement -- that the writers who are striking are rich. They're not. In fact, it couldn't be further from the truth. For every Tim Kring (Heroes) or Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly), there are ten writers who go long stretches of time without a paycheck, writing scripts on spec, making about $5,000
a year, on average. It's a tough business.
The future is digital and the writers must be paid. Otherwise, there will be no quality scripted dramas, comedies or amusing monologues by Leno or Letterman.
You can get full coverage of the issues, with blog posts, links, videos and breaking news at WritersWrite.com's Writers' Strike Resource.
Posted on November 8, 2007
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