So why are they striking?
Nov. 5th, 2007 12:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icarusOn the WGA strike.
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femmequixotic tells us what it's about. The producers/studios won't budge.
The bit in the contract that the producers/studios are holding out over? Negotiations that double the writers' residuals on DVDs, bringing it up from four cents per disk to eight--a number that was devised in 1985 because of the high cost of producing VHS tapes--and negotiations that give the writer residuals on new media and Internet downloads--which they don't get at all right now. The studios have suggested that Internet residuals should be the same as the current DVD residuals. For content that doesn't cost anything to put on a media format.
WGA cooperated, took the DVD residual increase off the table. But the studios still wouldn't budge on Internet downloads.
I suspect the studios are holding out because they hope that with the increase Internet downloads (we all know that's where the DVD rental market is going to go), they can hang on to an increasing margin of profits. If they can do it, the writers won't get jack for their work as DVDs and VHS tapes are replaced by online downloads.
Greedy bastards.
From where I sit, producers want a bigger slice of the pie with an eye to long-term profits. They're willing to kill a few shows and hang on the fan albatross on the WGA's neck. And, oh, hey lookie. Guess who owns a lot of the media outfits that are covering the story?
femmequixotic tells us what it's about. The producers/studios won't budge. The bit in the contract that the producers/studios are holding out over? Negotiations that double the writers' residuals on DVDs, bringing it up from four cents per disk to eight--a number that was devised in 1985 because of the high cost of producing VHS tapes--and negotiations that give the writer residuals on new media and Internet downloads--which they don't get at all right now. The studios have suggested that Internet residuals should be the same as the current DVD residuals. For content that doesn't cost anything to put on a media format.
WGA cooperated, took the DVD residual increase off the table. But the studios still wouldn't budge on Internet downloads.
I suspect the studios are holding out because they hope that with the increase Internet downloads (we all know that's where the DVD rental market is going to go), they can hang on to an increasing margin of profits. If they can do it, the writers won't get jack for their work as DVDs and VHS tapes are replaced by online downloads.
Greedy bastards.
From where I sit, producers want a bigger slice of the pie with an eye to long-term profits. They're willing to kill a few shows and hang on the fan albatross on the WGA's neck. And, oh, hey lookie. Guess who owns a lot of the media outfits that are covering the story?
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no subject
Date: 2007-11-05 08:32 pm (UTC)Likewise, the shows outsourced will rise - as with what happened last time, they will simply try and get UK, Canadian and other writers to step in and write - perhaps on pilot ideas so their continuity on shows wont be jeopardised.
I agree wholeheartedly with the strike and, if anything, it'll mean a lot of rubbish shows won't clog up the system for a while and maybe even a few maybes rushed into production that they wouldn't have taken a chance on before.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-05 08:56 pm (UTC)