Writers Walk Pickets For Share of New Media
TV lovers get ready for more re-runs ahead. On November 5 more than 12,000 television and screenwriters, members of the Writers Guild of America, traded in their pens for picket signs. Both the East and West Coast wings of the union are on strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the umbrella organization representing major film studios and television networks. Industry insiders predict the strike could last well into 2008, and writers are preparing for a long battle.
Late-night talk shows were the first casualty of the strike, as popular shows like “The Tonight Show,” “The Daily Show,” and “The Colbert Report” were immediately forced into repeats. Many prime-time television series will exhaust their stockpiled episodes by the end of the year.
SLICING NEW MEDIA’S PIE
The heart of the current dispute is a fight over who gets paid for content distributed through “new media”—the rapidly evolving world of Internet downloads, online streaming video, and cell phone broadcasts. Writers currently receive no payments—known in the industry as residuals—when their shows are broadcast online or downloaded through services like Apple’s digital store iTunes. The union is currently pushing for 2.5 percent of the revenues generated from these new distribution methods.
“This strike is for the future,” said Peter Grosz, a writer for “The Colbert Report,” Comedy Central’s late-night satire. “The Internet is too big, too important to buckle on this,” Grosz added. “What we are asking for is so simple and so fair. If they get paid we get paid.”
For veteran writers, the current conflict feels like déjà vu. In 1985 the union faced a similar battle with the industry over residual formulas for the “unproven” market of home video. Writers accepted a low percentage only to see the market explode, first through VHS then DVDs.
SUPPORT LABOR NOTES
BECOME A MONTHLY DONOR
Give $10 a month or more and get our "Fight the Boss, Build the Union" T-shirt.
Today movie studios make more than twice as much from the home video market than they do from the box office, and television networks often make more money from selling shows on DVD than they do from syndication or international broadcasting rights. Industry executives are making similar arguments today about distributing content over the Internet or via cell phones, but writers vow they won’t make the same mistake twice.
According to Grosz, “We learned the lesson on DVDs. Producers won the battle 20 years ago on DVDs, but we want to win the war.”
In the early weeks of the strike, writers experienced strong support from many high-profile actors, directors, and so-called “show-runners,” the producers who also help write many of television’s biggest series.
“Everyone on the show has been supportive,” said Peter Gwinn, a writer for “The Colbert Report.” “They know we’re not the bad guys. We’re not going to lose this.”
The display of solidarity is not surprising, as both the actors and directors will face similar struggles over Internet residuals when their contracts expire next summer. Many predict that the writers’ deal could set the pattern for the rest of the industry.
“This is a fight that comes along once in a generation,” said Louis Venosta, a New York City screenwriter and 22-year member of the guild. “This strike affects everyone in the entertainment industry. We’re all in this together. For us there will be no next time.”
