Writers Stike Ends

After three months, the Writers Strike appears to be over.  The board of the Writers Guild has approved a new contract, and members are expected to follow suit.  For more on this development, click here, here, and here.

The spin has already started.  A Guild representative said this new contract contained “huge victories” for screenwriters.  Another went even further:  “This is the best deal the guild has bargained for in 30 years.  It’s not all we hoped for, and it’s not all we deserve, but . . . this deal assures for us and for future generations a share in the future.”  Perhaps they’ll tackle world hunger next.

The writers definitely obtained some of what they were looking for.  The new agreement doubles the rates that writers are paid for movies and TV shows sold online.  For the first time, the the writers will get a percentage of revenue instead of a fixed fee for the streaming of entertainment on the Internet.  This latter provision doesn’t take effect for three years, and it’s impossible to know how big digital media will become during the next three years.  However, it’s likely that the writers will come out pretty well with this new stream of revenue once it kicks in.  Another probable residual benefit from this settlement is that a strike by the Actors Guild will now be averted.

The truth is that, as with any strike, there’s no way to determine who won and who lost.  The writers can brag about how much more money they will make, but that amount can’t be calculated right now.  With the rapid changes in technology, it’s pretty funny for someone to talk about what this contract does for future generations.  Maybe the person who said it is a comedy writer.

Not only do we not know with any degree of certainty what the future finances of this settlement are, we don’t know how much money has been lost during the three month strike.  A lot of people have been out of work. The studios/networks have lost money.  While there may be estimates of the losses thrown around, no one will ever know for sure.

Interestingly, we haven’t heard any spin from management about what this deal means.  At this point, management doesn’t want to say anything that would make the writers mad and, thus, cause a negative vote on the proposed contract.  Reading between the lines, this probably means that the studios/networks are the ones who came out well in this new contract.  I suspect management gave less than they were prepared to give, but I’m obviously guessing.  I say this for two reasons.  First, the deal was apparently put together by two “suits” from the studios/networks after the Writers Guild had begun some internal fights.  Second, three months is a long time to go without getting paid.  Again guessing, I’d say the Guild and its members blinked.

In summing up this three month stalemate and suggesting how it could have been avoided, an unnamed studio head said, “People should talk to each other.”  Now he tells us.