TV and Film | February 11, 2009 | 3 comments

WGA Strike: One Year Later

source: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117999957.html?categoryid=13&cs=1

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"As the industry still grapples with the upshot of SAG's long-running contract drama, the collateral damage of the WGA walkout is coming into sharper focus. The impact has included the following:

* A swift and dramatic reduction in fees paid to above-the-line talent, particularly thesps and scribes. Feature scribes, in particular, are grumbling about massive reductions in post-strike script fees.

* Primetime development business that has yet to fully recover from the disruption caused to the 2007-08 TV season and development for the current season.

* A de facto strike caused by uncertainty surrounding the Screen Actors Guild that has put this year's film business in a coma, even after the WGA settlement.

And then the broader financial meltdown hit.

Given the state of the global economy, some of the downsizing and budget-slashing that Hollywood is now enduring would have come even without the 100-day walkout. But the realignment of the biz's investment priorities is coming more swiftly and more comprehensively because of the scrutiny of operations that took place while the scribes were pounding the pavement.

At the outset, the strike starved the major nets and some cablers of original scripted programming at the worst possible time for a disruption to primetime's status quo. Even top-tier shows -- think "CSI," "Grey's Anatomy," "House" and "Heroes" -- haven't recovered from the ratings hit they took after being MIA for most of the second half of last season. As any network skedding exec will tell you, when viewers break a given habit, even for just a few weeks, it's next to impossible to get them all back."
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    TV and Film,  Screenwriting,  Writers' Strike,  WGA,  1 more
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3 comments // WGA Strike: One Year Later

  • livejelly
    • 0
      livejelly  

    • Writers have the right to get benefits & wages & pension.
      They are in a union as professsionals.
      Writing is also a craft.

      Past Strike:
      Studios & producers and other businesses took that opportunity to go to the internet. So from the above comment it is very easy to see, then that producers are crying wolf about internet broadcasting as not developled and that they do not know what is going to happen.

      so when these shows were Missing in action during the strike time, producers/studios quickly put the stuff on the internet. Then from the comment above it gives testimony that internet broadcast is mainstream and thus studios must pay the due residuals not 1/2 assed.

      So Internet is pretty well developed. So it seems to us that studios are taking a page out of terrorism to propagate false propaganda that the internet shows
      won't generate $ just now and it will take them another 2-3 years to come to the table. That union workers speaking up will harm all productions, when unfair deals will only harm the future of benefits.

      Again producers axed a fair labor negotiation deal to
      fill their bottom line, leaving future of unions bleak.

    • 3 years ago
  • ddhboy
    • 0
      ddhboy  

    • I can honestly say that pre writers strike I was watching TV almost every day. Then the strike happened and it sucked that my favorite shows were MIA, but after a week, I just went and got my entertainment from the internet, which I had been doing before. Now I'm lucky if I watch 2 hours of TV a week. Ironically, it was the writers strike itself that made internet broadcasts of TV shows so mainstream, as before it really was just an advertising gimmick. Hell it forced the creation of Hulu.

    • 3 years ago
  • livejelly
    • 0
      livejelly  

    • in this video SAG Actor presents a good point!

      from LJ: Workers have a right to benefits and fair wages. In contract negotiations, we should not only look at the time frame now, but long term benefits as well.
      LJ being really tired of only a majority of pro management realated material & one sides material out in the media wants to balance the playing field with other information put together by SAG actors and is out there but not highlighted which must be taken into account.

      Producer/Studios always do whats best for them, then so must SAG speak up on behalf of the majority of its members and not just the celebs.
      Studios/producers will say what they want to get their deal, they never come and offer a great fair deal, unions has to fight for benefits. Past SAG members may not have done their own research & may have believed what producers said about the emerging media at the time such as DVDs-in that time to now DVDs r a big business.
      Even There could have been more union jobs for actors with many channels that have evolved.
      We cannot just listen to producers regarding the state of the industry, we must do our own research as well.

      *Is that elephant in the room Union?*

    • 3 years ago
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