the strike

So it hasn’t happened yet, but the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers failed to reach an agreement before the contract expired at midnight last night. Now I will have to say that my even discussing this feels like reporting on actual news, which I have no interest in doing, but as it could impact on my television viewing I figured it was worth a note. 

So what’s the big point of contention? New media of course. From what I’ve gleaned the writers feel like they settled for too little share of dvd and video releases and ended up getting screwed out of a big pot of cash. So they want to fix that and now that there’s potentially a new pot they want to make sure they’re a part of the mix. The studios are concerned that if they cut the writers in too much then they are limiting their ability to try out new ventures since at this point most of them aren’t really profitable.  

Of course the landscape of television is changing and old methods of distribution are waning as the new ones grow. I may be missing something but sharing a percentage of profits with those who create work seems common sensical, and if an area is profitable for no one then what’s the harm in sharing a percentage of that, and if it’s profitable for everyone… win win right? 

So since both sides seem to be digging in, what does it all mean to me, and to you? That depends. From what I’ve read it seems like late night shows will be the first to be impacted since those are the most real time. What you mean Jay Leno doesn’t improv the whole show? They’ll cut back their sketches and/or go to reruns. Regular shows have a bit of a stockpile so we should see some episodes for now until maybe the holidays when it goes into reruns anyhow.  

What ever will they do to fill the space? Lots of reruns of course. If they’re smart they’ll figure out a way to run cable series on sister networks because that should up the audience substantially. Oh and more reality tv, since apparently those ‘writers’ aren’t included in the union. As for me I’m updating my netflix queue.

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