TV writers demand their due
Monday, November 5th, 2007Hollywood writers are on strike. No matter where you stand on the concept of unions or the right to strike or the futility of demanding more money even in the lucrative business of show, you likely have to admit that without writers, there would be no show!
Writers want a bigger share of royalties for DVD releases and online downloads of programs. The rules governing those payments were written about 20 years ago and there’s been an explosion in viewers choosing to be their own programmers. Performers get a piece of the action. The people who put words in their mouths want their share.
You may say, well TV is just junk anyway, so why should I care? I don’t watch anything but Letterman and The Colbert Report. Well, they’ll be the first to go. They rely on writers for their monologues and those current event jokes won’t get written without scribes at their keyboards. Scripted shows tend to work ahead so it may be a while before some of them end up in repeats. Feature films are also done well in advance so the impact there is uncertain.
A potential fallout if the strike goes on too long: more so-called reality TV. Executives will need to boost audience levels in order to maintain ad revenue levels and it is a proven fact that if you put a camera on regular people or stars or a combination of both, in virtually any situation, millions will probably watch.
No one can predict the outcome. This strike could be over by the time this blog hits the ‘net or it could go on for weeks and months or something in between. But it’s one of those stories that you won’t be able to avoid following, even if it doesn’t affect your own life directly.
