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Today, the AP is reporting that a writers guild strike could happen as soon as Friday - tonight, members will meet to discuss whether to keep working without a contract or walk out.
The writers and networks haven’t reached an agreement on payment for dvd sales, digital revenue, and shows shown online. Writers get paid pennies on the sale of dvds. They want a cut of the advertising revenue when shows and movies are streamed over the internet for free (right now, they’re getting nothing).
The networks counter by saying that dvd sales offset the increased costs of production, and they don’t want to committ to paying more money in an uncertain economic climate.
John Handel is an entertainment lawyer who once served as counsel to the WGA. He says that delaying a strike benefits the writers.
The writers guild has two weapons: one is a strike, the other is the threat of a strike. It has no reason to toss that weapon away without using it for a bit.
If writers do strike, primetime shows and movies would not be affected immediately. The first ones to feel the strike’s effects would be late-night talk shows, which depend on writers for monologues and skits. They depend on current events and there will be no one to write them up. After the shows ran out of scripts, they’d have to run reality shows, reruns, and game shows to fill up the gaps.
So writers are meeting tonight and may decide to strike tomorrow. Or they could postpone the decision for a few days. It doesn’t seem like they’re going to get what they want from the networks - which is money from digital/dvd sales. Let’s see what happens.
Check out 451Press for more on your favorite shows - which hopefully will continue showing new episodes!
November 1st, 2007 at 9:08 pm
[...] the deadline has passed without a strike, many believe a strike is still imminent. If a strike does occur, late night programming will be the first casualty. Most scripted shows [...]