Yes, they are frustrating aren't they? I remember thinking - could we just all sign a huge petition and send it to the studios stating we the viewers want you to give the writers a fair deal! (Then bingo, my wish appears on the net, yay!)
I haven't seen any of the articles, ads, or statements coming from the AMPTP, thank heavens. Managed to avoid that - which I guess tells you how prevalent and effective they are. I'm telling you, Al Gore is right, the most accessible medium right now is the internet. Not magazines, not newspapers, not television - but the net. That's what the tv writers have finally figured out...we can use the internet to get our word out, organize our fans, and as well as a weapon to get what we want. It's ironic - considering that the fight is over residuals from the internet and other sources of new media.
That said, I've worked in and around the entertainment biz and known enough people who have as well (on the biz side of the equation not the creative) that I can understand the AMPTP's pov without reading their propaganda and rhetoric. Their negotiator was interviewed a while back in something or other and he basically said - that the problem was if they gave into the writers, what about the DGA and SAG? Everyone wants a piece of our pie and there aren't enough slices to go around. Which is a problem if you think of the pie as being relatively small and the cost of baking it huge. (ie. 60 million for 22 episodes of LOST: 70 million potential profit before taxes - the EBIT -yes, I've been reading an accounting book.)
Well, duh. That's the nature of the biz. Always has been. Splitting the revenue. But it can be done. It won't be easy, but nothing is. I know I worked in two companies that had to figure out how to divide their internet based profit amongst a large and somewhat diverse group of providers. Granted it often meant that everyone got ten cents. But hey...that ten cents does add up over time. And in the film/tv industry - it's not like the internet is their only venue. They have : mobile (wireless), internet, tv, movie theater, DVD (retail), home video, airline/hotel, and train/bus. Revenue sources? Advertising, subscriber, purchase, and ticket price.
The WGA is asking for residuals from paid internet downloads (itunes, AmazonUnboxed, Tivo) and advertising supported streaming videos (Hula, network sites). They gave up asking for increased residuals for DVD (they wanted 4.2% apparently and are only getting 2% or less). That was removed from the table in the hopes they would get a percentage of net revenues. So really? They aren't asking for all that much. It would be a lot cheaper for all concerned if the AMPTP bent a bit on this point and agreed to give the writers a percentage of the internet profits. But, I'm afraid they are too busy worrying about their bottomline to grasp that fact and too convinced that they can survive a strike better than the WGA can. (It's almost as if they are afraid to give in, because they think it will send the wrong message. Much like the MTA was afraid to give in the TCW for fear it would send the message that their strike worked.)
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I haven't seen any of the articles, ads, or statements coming from the AMPTP, thank heavens. Managed to avoid that - which I guess tells you how prevalent and effective they are. I'm telling you, Al Gore is right, the most accessible medium right now is the internet. Not magazines, not newspapers, not television - but the net. That's what the tv writers have finally figured out...we can use the internet to get our word out, organize our fans, and as well as a weapon to get what we want. It's ironic - considering that the fight is over residuals from the internet and other sources of new media.
That said, I've worked in and around the entertainment biz and known enough people who have as well (on the biz side of the equation not the creative) that I can understand the AMPTP's pov without reading their propaganda and rhetoric. Their negotiator was interviewed a while back in something or other and he basically said - that the problem was if they gave into the writers, what about the DGA and SAG? Everyone wants a piece of our pie and there aren't enough slices to go around. Which is a problem if you think of the pie as being relatively small and the cost of baking it huge. (ie. 60 million for 22 episodes of LOST: 70 million potential profit before taxes - the EBIT -yes, I've been reading an accounting book.)
Well, duh. That's the nature of the biz. Always has been. Splitting the revenue.
But it can be done. It won't be easy, but nothing is. I know I worked in two companies that had to figure out how to divide their internet based profit amongst a large and somewhat diverse group of providers. Granted it often meant that everyone got ten cents. But hey...that ten cents does add up over time. And in the film/tv industry - it's not like the internet is their only venue. They have : mobile (wireless), internet, tv, movie theater, DVD (retail), home video, airline/hotel, and train/bus. Revenue sources? Advertising, subscriber, purchase,
and ticket price.
The WGA is asking for residuals from paid internet downloads (itunes, AmazonUnboxed, Tivo) and advertising supported streaming videos (Hula, network sites). They gave up asking for increased residuals for DVD (they wanted 4.2% apparently and are only getting 2% or less). That was removed from the table in the hopes they would get a percentage of net revenues. So really? They aren't asking for all that much. It would be a lot cheaper for all concerned if the AMPTP bent a bit on this point and agreed to give the writers a percentage of the internet profits. But, I'm afraid they are too busy worrying about their bottomline to grasp that fact and too convinced that they can survive a strike better than the WGA can.
(It's almost as if they are afraid to give in, because they think it will send the wrong message. Much like the MTA was afraid to give in the TCW for fear it would send the message that their strike worked.)