Hollywood writers go on strike over fair wages in streaming age
More than 11,000 TV and film writers are on strike for the first time in 15 years after talks between the Writers Guild of America and the Motion Picture and Television Producers Alliance broke down on Monday. He said he would start the strike at midnight after the PT expired.
WGA was in talks with Discovery Warner, NBC Universal, Paramount, Sony, Netflix, Amazon, Apple and Disney, all of which were under the umbrella of AMPTP.
Labor disputes can have cascading effects on television and film production, depending on how long the strike lasts. But due to the extent of the discord, the closure has been widely predicted for months.The writers voted overwhelmingly to approve the strike last month, with 98% of his members backing it. .
Writers’ strikes are often protracted. In 1988, the WGA strike lasted his 153 days. His last WGA strike he lasted 100 days from 2007-2008.
The most immediate effects of the strike that viewers are likely to notice are late-night shows and “Saturday Night Live.” Everything is expected to get dark soon. Deadline reports, “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon have halted production since Tuesday.
During the 2007 strike, late-night hosts eventually returned to broadcasting and used improvised material. Jay Leno wrote his own monologue to anger union leaders.
The WGA Board of Directors, which includes both the Western and Eastern Chapters, unanimously decided to call for a strike. The writers are facing an “existential crisis,” they said.
“While we negotiated with the intention of doing a fair deal, your strike vote gave us the power to make some profit, but the studio’s reaction to it was our proposal Given the existential crisis facing writers, they were completely inadequate,” the Guild wrote to its members. The Writing Profession.
“From refusing to guarantee weekly employment on episodic television, to creating comedy variety ‘daily wages’, to free jobs for screenwriters and sabotaging AI for all writers, they are It closed the door on freeing up the workforce and opening the door to writing as a fully freelance profession. With this membership, such a deal was unthinkable.
Among the WGA issues are the reward changes that streaming has introduced. With fewer episodes, lower salaries, and fewer opportunities for balances, the Guild had requested higher initial rewards for writers and established metrics for rewarding writers with high balances. For streaming shows with high ratings.
AMPTP proposed a lower base salary hike than what the WGA had asked for, but the Guild said the Alliance outright rejected requests for streaming residuals based on viewership numbers.
The WGA was also calling for a mandatory minimum staffing requirement for episodic television and guarantees of uninterrupted working weeks for writers. AMPTP claimed that staffing and tenure requirements were “major issues” in the negotiations.
“AMPTP presented the Guild with a comprehensive proposed package last night, which included generous increases in writer compensation and improved streaming residuals,” the alliance said in a statement. AMPTP also indicated to the WGA that it was ready to improve its offer, but was unwilling to do so because other proposals that the Guild continues to insist on are still on the table.”
Streaming is exploding in the number of series and movies produced each year, creating more work for writers. But WGA members say they earn much less and work in more tense conditions. Streaming series showrunners receive only 46% of what broadcast series showrunners receive, the WGA claims. Content is booming, but rewards are dwindling.
Many of the historically profitable backend payment writers, such as syndication and international licenses, were largely phased out with the onset of streaming. A 16% increase over the last decade, with more writers (almost half) paying the minimum fee. The use of the so-called mini-writers room has increased rapidly.
Guild says writers need more flexibility when signing series that tend to be more limited and short-lived than the 20-plus-episode air season that was once the norm.
At the same time, studios are under pressure from Wall Street to turn a profit on their streaming services. Many studios and production companies are negotiating with the industry group, the Motion Picture and Television Producers Alliance, to slash spending. The Walt Disney Company is cutting his 7,000 jobs. Warner Bros. Discovery cuts costs to reduce debt. Netflix has put a brake on spending growth.
CBS News is owned by Paramount.
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More than 11,000 TV and film writers are on strike for the first time in 15 years after talks between the Writers Guild of America and the Motion Picture and Television Producers Alliance broke down on Monday. He said he would start the strike at midnight after the PT expired.WGA was in talks with Discovery Warner, NBC Universal, Paramount, Sony, Netflix, Amazon, Apple and Disney, all of which were under the umbrella of AMPTP. Labor disputes can have cascading effects on television and film production, depending on how long the strike lasts. But due to the extent of the discord, the closure has been widely predicted for months.The writers voted overwhelmingly to approve the strike last month, with 98% of his members backing it. .
Writers’ strikes are often protracted. In 1988, the WGA strike lasted his 153 days. His last WGA strike he lasted 100 days from 2007-2008.The most immediate effects of the strike that viewers are likely to notice are late-night shows and “Saturday Night Live.” Everything is expected to get dark soon. Deadline reports, “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon have halted production since Tuesday.
During the 2007 strike, late-night hosts eventually returned to broadcasting and used improvised material. Jay Leno wrote his own monologue to anger union leaders. The WGA Board of Directors, which includes both the Western and Eastern Chapters, unanimously decided to call for a strike. The writers are facing an “existential crisis,” they said.”While we negotiated with the intention of doing a fair deal, your strike vote gave us the power to make some profit, but the studio’s reaction to it was our proposal Given the existential crisis facing writers, they were completely inadequate,” the Guild wrote to its members. The Writing Profession.“From refusing to guarantee weekly employment on episodic television, to creating comedy variety ‘daily wages’, to free jobs for screenwriters and sabotaging AI for all writers, they are It closed the door on freeing up the workforce and opening the door to writing as a fully freelance profession. With this membership, such a deal was unthinkable.
Among the WGA issues are the reward changes that streaming has introduced. With fewer episodes, lower salaries, and fewer opportunities for balances, the Guild had requested higher initial rewards for writers and established metrics for rewarding writers with high balances. For streaming shows with high ratings. AMPTP proposed a lower base salary hike than what the WGA had asked for, but the Guild said the Alliance outright rejected requests for streaming residuals based on viewership numbers.The WGA was also calling for a mandatory minimum staffing requirement for episodic television and guarantees of uninterrupted working weeks for writers. AMPTP claimed that staffing and tenure requirements were “major issues” in the negotiations.”AMPTP presented the Guild with a comprehensive proposed package last night, which included generous increases in writer compensation and improved streaming residuals,” the alliance said in a statement. AMPTP also indicated to the WGA that it was ready to improve its offer, but was unwilling to do so because other proposals that the Guild continues to insist on are still on the table.”Streaming is exploding in the number of series and movies produced each year, creating more work for writers. But WGA members say they earn much less and work in more tense conditions. Streaming series showrunners receive only 46% of what broadcast series showrunners receive, the WGA claims. Content is booming, but rewards are dwindling.Many of the historically profitable backend payment writers, such as syndication and international licenses, were largely phased out with the onset of streaming. A 16% increase over the last decade, with more writers (almost half) paying the minimum fee. The use of the so-called mini-writers room has increased rapidly.Guild says writers need more flexibility when signing series that tend to be more limited and short-lived than the 20-plus-episode air season that was once the norm.
At the same time, studios are under pressure from Wall Street to turn a profit on their streaming services. Many studios and production companies are negotiating with the industry group, the Motion Picture and Television Producers Alliance, to slash spending. The Walt Disney Company is cutting his 7,000 jobs. Warner Bros. Discovery cuts costs to reduce debt. Netflix has put a brake on spending growth.CBS News is owned by Paramount.
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