Last minute efforts to iron out the contracts with WGA scribes collapsed this weekend. A federal mediator had been called in Sunday night to work with the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers. The effort was futile.
The WGA is moving forward with plans to set up picket lines outside New York and LA studios, with New York as the flagship strike city.
Nick Counter, president of the AMPTP said, “We made an attempt at meeting them in a number of their key areas including Internet streaming and jurisdiction in new media… ultimately, the guild was unwilling to compromise on most of their major demands. It is unfortunate that they choose to take this irresponsible action.”
Patric Verrone, president of the WGA West, said “Our position is simple and fair … when a writer’s work generates revenue for the companies, that writer deserves to be paid.”
Another problem point was on promotions that allowed companies “to reuse even complete movies or TV shows on any platform with no residual.”
Counter remarked, “The WGA leadership continues to mischaracterize the current provisions for compensation in new media… when a consumer pays to view a TV program or a feature film for a limited period of time, the writer gets a residual. When the consumer pays for a permanent download of a TV program or feature film, the writer gets a residual.”
The guild said, “Our sense is we can do some economic damage immediately.” Which is undoubtedly true. Shows like Heroes which have not finished scripting the entire season, will have plans put on hold. Already, Heroes Origins has been put on the cancellation block. Late night tv will also suffer from lack of new content for hosts to work with. Live news parody shows like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the Colbert Report will also suffer.
The guild said, “Early today, the WGA completely withdrew its DVD proposal, which the companies said was a stumbling block.” Their claim is that there is, “no jurisdiction for most of new media writing, no economic proposal for the part of new media writing where they do propose to give coverage, Internet downloads at the DVD rate, (and) no residual for streaming video of theatrical product.”
Have to agree with you Ben. The last Writers strike happend in 1988. It lasted 22 weeks and cost the industry over $500 million.
dude this thing is going to go on well into 2008.