Thousands of Hollywood television and movie writers were to go on strike yesterday, their union said, after talks with studios and streamers over pay and working conditions ended without a deal.
The strike means late-night shows are expected to grind to a halt immediately, while television series and movies scheduled for release later this year and beyond could face major delays.
“We have not reached an agreement with the studios and streamers. We will be on strike after the contract expires at midnight,” the Writers Guild of America (WGA) said in an e-mail to members on Monday.
Photo: AFP
Studios’ responses to its proposals had been “wholly insufficient, given the existential crisis writers are facing,” the WGA said.
It came after the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), representing studios including Disney and Netflix, said negotiations had “concluded without an agreement.”
The strike could have potentially catastrophic effects on the US entertainment industry.
The last time Hollywood writers laid down their pens and keyboards, in 2007, the strike lasted for 100 days, costing the Los Angeles entertainment economy about US$2 billion.
This time, the two sides are clashing as writers demand higher pay, minimum guarantees of stable employment and a greater share of profits from the boom in streaming, while studios say they must cut costs due to economic pressures.
Writers say it is becoming impossible to earn a living, as salaries have flatlined or declined after inflation, even as employers reap profits and fatten executives’ paychecks.
More writers than ever are working at the union-mandated minimum wage.
A major source of disagreement during talks was the growing trend for TV shows to hire fewer writers, for shorter durations, to script series.
As talks collapsed on Monday, the WGA accused studios of seeking to create a “gig economy” in which writing would become an “entirely freelance profession.”
It released a document, showing that it had called for introducing new minimum numbers of writers, and minimum durations of employment, for television shows.
The AMPTP said WGA demands that the studios hire a set number of writers “for a specified period of time, whether needed or not” were the “primary sticking points” to a deal.
Another issue on the table is reworking the formula that calculates how writers are paid for streaming shows, which often remain on platforms like Netflix years after they are written.
For decades, writers have been paid “residuals” from each reuse of their material, such as television reruns or DVD sales.
With streaming, writers simply get a fixed annual payout — even if their work generates a smash hit like Bridgerton or Stranger Things, streamed by hundreds of millions of viewers around the world.
The WGA also wants to address the future impact of artificial intelligence on writing.
The studios said that overall “residuals” paid to writers hit an all-time high of US$494 million in 2021, largely thanks to the boom in writing jobs driven by the explosion of streaming content.
They also dispute suggestions that studios are falsely claiming economic hardship to bolster their negotiating position.
After the spendthrift past few years, when rival streamers chased subscriber growth at any cost, bosses are now under intense pressure to curb spending and deliver profits.
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