Television Writers Put Down Pens; Take Up Swords
On Friday, a strike was unanimously approved by the board of the Writers Guild of America West and the council of the WGA East.
Federal mediator Juan Carlos Gonzales then called an 11th hour meeting on Sunday with representatives from the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers, in hopes of ending the standoff. But with just a few ticks left on the clock, and the writer’s main sticking point for increased residuals from DVD and online sales, still unresolved, it appears the first television writers’ strike since 1988, will begin Monday , with guild members planning to form picket lines in front of NBC’s headquarters’ at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan.
Since networks have been preparing for trench warfare for some time, viewers won’t be immediately affected by this shutdown. Studios have plenty of scripts already written, and enough pre-taped shows to last them through the year. It’s on the late night circuit, where television hosts David Letterman, Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel, et al, will have no choice, with no writers available, but to resort to re-runs, until cooler heads prevail and an agreement is reached. Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart, `The Colbert Report'', the hosts of the View, and NBC’s Saturday Night Live, right at the height of the presidential election season, will also have to bite the bullet and cease production.
So with 4,434 of its working film and television members having earned a combined $905.8 million in 2006, why is the WGA moaning?
It all boils down to consumer’s rapid migration to the Internet for watching TV shows and movies, and writers being denied their fair share of the pie. Adams Media Research reports online DVD rentals ballooned to $1.3 billion in annual consumer spending in 2006. And considering writer's earn a mere 0.3 % of gross revenue for the first $1 million in sales of DVD’s, and 0.36 for sales over $1 million, as reported in the Wall Street Journal, the union’s grievance comes into sharper focus.
When asked about the union’s hard-line over online sales, screenwriter Bill Phillips, an Associate Professor of Film and Television Studies at Dartmouth College, considered the guild’s demands reasonable, and thought that ``management has become more greedy, and they [studios] see the Bush administration with all its favoritism and no-bid contracts and excessive profits for their pals (like Exxon) as a model... they think they can bust the little guy.’’
The last time the writer’s struck in 1988, which lasted 22 weeks, and cost the industry a reported $500 million, many analysts thought the guild settled without getting their fair share of residuals from VHS sales. They don’t plan on making the same mistake this time over DVD sales and online downloads, especially with studies from The Conference Board, a consumer research organization, showing online viewing of television having doubled from a year ago, representing 16 % of American households, a relatively small number, but one that is estimated to grow in the coming years.
So with the writers and studios gridlocked, is there any middle ground that can be reached before television studios go dark?
There haven’t been many quick and easy solutions offered, but considering all the new technologies in which to generate increased revenues, such as DBS, mobile phone downloading, P2P copying, etc, the prevailing sentiment, and one echoed by Michael Botein, professor of law and Director of the Media Center at New York Law School, is ``the parties need each other too much not to reach some kind of deal’’.
But what if our worst fears do come to light, and scripted television production grinds to a halt. What’s in store for viewers then, a steady diet of mindless reality shows, even more Andy Griffith reruns, watching the Godfather on the A & E Television Network for the hundredth time?
Christine Becker, professor at Notre Dame, who specializes in film and television history, warned of one of the great lessons of the 1988 television strike, which is ``that if you alienate audiences for a time, some of them don't come back. ``And it stands to reason, Becker observed, that if we get nothing but reality TV, game shows, Dateline, and sports in prime time over the next six months, some will make themselves very happy with other entertainment.’’
There is something positive that would come out of a writer’s strike. Saving viewers from two eyesores, ``Caveman'' and the ``Bionic Woman'', might benefit everyone.
Federal mediator Juan Carlos Gonzales then called an 11th hour meeting on Sunday with representatives from the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers, in hopes of ending the standoff. But with just a few ticks left on the clock, and the writer’s main sticking point for increased residuals from DVD and online sales, still unresolved, it appears the first television writers’ strike since 1988, will begin Monday , with guild members planning to form picket lines in front of NBC’s headquarters’ at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan.
Since networks have been preparing for trench warfare for some time, viewers won’t be immediately affected by this shutdown. Studios have plenty of scripts already written, and enough pre-taped shows to last them through the year. It’s on the late night circuit, where television hosts David Letterman, Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel, et al, will have no choice, with no writers available, but to resort to re-runs, until cooler heads prevail and an agreement is reached. Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart, `The Colbert Report'', the hosts of the View, and NBC’s Saturday Night Live, right at the height of the presidential election season, will also have to bite the bullet and cease production.
So with 4,434 of its working film and television members having earned a combined $905.8 million in 2006, why is the WGA moaning?
It all boils down to consumer’s rapid migration to the Internet for watching TV shows and movies, and writers being denied their fair share of the pie. Adams Media Research reports online DVD rentals ballooned to $1.3 billion in annual consumer spending in 2006. And considering writer's earn a mere 0.3 % of gross revenue for the first $1 million in sales of DVD’s, and 0.36 for sales over $1 million, as reported in the Wall Street Journal, the union’s grievance comes into sharper focus.
When asked about the union’s hard-line over online sales, screenwriter Bill Phillips, an Associate Professor of Film and Television Studies at Dartmouth College, considered the guild’s demands reasonable, and thought that ``management has become more greedy, and they [studios] see the Bush administration with all its favoritism and no-bid contracts and excessive profits for their pals (like Exxon) as a model... they think they can bust the little guy.’’
The last time the writer’s struck in 1988, which lasted 22 weeks, and cost the industry a reported $500 million, many analysts thought the guild settled without getting their fair share of residuals from VHS sales. They don’t plan on making the same mistake this time over DVD sales and online downloads, especially with studies from The Conference Board, a consumer research organization, showing online viewing of television having doubled from a year ago, representing 16 % of American households, a relatively small number, but one that is estimated to grow in the coming years.
So with the writers and studios gridlocked, is there any middle ground that can be reached before television studios go dark?
There haven’t been many quick and easy solutions offered, but considering all the new technologies in which to generate increased revenues, such as DBS, mobile phone downloading, P2P copying, etc, the prevailing sentiment, and one echoed by Michael Botein, professor of law and Director of the Media Center at New York Law School, is ``the parties need each other too much not to reach some kind of deal’’.
But what if our worst fears do come to light, and scripted television production grinds to a halt. What’s in store for viewers then, a steady diet of mindless reality shows, even more Andy Griffith reruns, watching the Godfather on the A & E Television Network for the hundredth time?
Christine Becker, professor at Notre Dame, who specializes in film and television history, warned of one of the great lessons of the 1988 television strike, which is ``that if you alienate audiences for a time, some of them don't come back. ``And it stands to reason, Becker observed, that if we get nothing but reality TV, game shows, Dateline, and sports in prime time over the next six months, some will make themselves very happy with other entertainment.’’
There is something positive that would come out of a writer’s strike. Saving viewers from two eyesores, ``Caveman'' and the ``Bionic Woman'', might benefit everyone.
-Bill Lucey
billlucey@bellsouth.net
billlucey@bellsouth.net
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