“You May Have Noticed Tonight That I Was Using a Lot of Words…”
UPDATE: A federal mediator will reportedly intervene in a last chance meeting Sunday morning.
The Writers Guild has authorized a strike and unless they and the AMPTP can find a middle ground between the doubling of residual revenue distributed to writers from VHS and DVD sales under the last contract and the 2.5% of distributor’s gross for re-use writers want for non-traditional media, it will be lights out for talk shows Monday and for scripted TV several months later.
Above: Jon Stewart lets viewers know why he may not be on come Monday
This is potentially a major opportunity for new media producers, as eyeballs go online for new content as an alternative to watching re-runs.
The Screen Actors Guild and Directors Guild collective bargaining agreements run out on June 30th, the unlikely failure of all three unions to reach agreements at that point would essentially shut down Hollywood.
The WGA is right to expect a larger share of residuals, they got screwed the last time when VHS and DVD sales became enormous industries. They should fight for a larger share of digital media revenue going forward as online is clearly the future of video distribution.