Why the Writers Strike is Important
The writers strike represents much more than a union wanting more money. It represents a fundamental shift in the way entertainment and ideas are distributed and how our economy interacts with them. It represents the future of Internet growth for existing industries.
When the news started trickling down in early October that there might be a writer's strike at the end of the month if the Writers Guild of America did not meet an agreement with the producers. It was abstract at the time and the actual ramifications did not make themselves quite apparent until about a week ago.
Now, with television shows airing their fall finales and probably last new episodes for the entire year and the daily shows into a second full week of reruns, it is apparent that the strike is probably going to last for a few weeks. There is no getting around it. But, few people seem to actually understand what the strike entails or why it even came into existence.
After all, the concept of a strike, at its core relates to the idea that workers should be protected and supported fairly for their contributions to an industry's product. So, there is usually a decent reason for a strike to take place. Regardless, many people are simply upset because they cannot watch new episodes of their favorite shows like The Office after this week and the backlash that this can create is starting to grow in the minds of the public.
And, on top of it all, this strike is a little different. Any strike by a creative union will be slightly different as the demands are usually not for health care or better hours. They usually have to do with royalties and pay scaling and this time around it is no different.
The symptoms of the WGA strike are slightly unfamiliar though – and may be a glimpse of the writhing, changing form of not only entertainment but of popular culture itself. Cultural industries have changed drastically in the past 10 years, growing from the mega-distribution factories that sprouted in the 80s and 90s into the digital wards of what has become the 21st century's unique production, online content.
Digital products are new for nearly anyone. The music industry is still trying to get a handle on how they split up revenues, handle piracy, and fairly distribute their product, and their products have been digital for years. The movie and television industries have only been online for a scant couple of years and the technology is still growing.
The first days of YouTube and iTunes video are still fresh in our memories and digital distribution of DVDs and TV shows is just now becoming feasible with the development of higher bandwidth and much larger, cheaper storage space.
So, it is little wonder that the industry is having trouble figuring out who should get paid for the products starting to be sold on the Internet. After all, there are so many hands in the cookie jar for any Hollywood production – how many of them deserve to stay in that jar when the product goes digital?
The writers, to this point, have been shut out. They have no share of the profits from digital sales of their work, and still retain the $.04 per DVD share that was worked out in the 1988 contract. Unfortunately, that royalty was decided upon when VHS was just starting to become available and no one was sure if home video would even be successful – it was expensive to make, more expensive to stock, and very few people could yet afford a VCR.
In 2007, everything is a little different. DVDs are incredibly cheap to make, everyone owns a DVD player and the next generation of home video is already well underway. All the while, the Internet continues to grow and the digital distribution of entertainment products is flourishing into a real business. The Office alone has sold more than 7 million downloads via iTunes in the last two years, generating over $14 million, none of which is distributed to the writers.
The problem is not that the writers and the producers cannot get along; it is that the concepts of entertainment and what is marketable have yet to be fully defined, mainly because they are constantly changing.
The same problems have been at least partially prevalent in the music industry, and in other industries that have yet to discover how an offline business model translates viably into an online venture that remains profitable. It is easy to say the writers are asking too much or the production companies are being stingy, but the truth of the matter is that the future of entertainment is in digital distribution and home video. For many films, more money is made in DVD sales and rentals than in theatrical releases – and soon online release will become a part of that pie.
This sort of problem will continue to develop and become more substantial as the Internet grows and becomes the central hub for our daily activities – gathering music, video, and information in a new way than we ever have before.
The writers strike is not just an isolated event and it may drag on for a few weeks because of that. It is representative of an entire industry trying to come to terms with its new identity, one that it did not choose for itself. We chose it, and if there's something a big industry does not like, it is the customers telling it what to do.
Now, with television shows airing their fall finales and probably last new episodes for the entire year and the daily shows into a second full week of reruns, it is apparent that the strike is probably going to last for a few weeks. There is no getting around it. But, few people seem to actually understand what the strike entails or why it even came into existence.
After all, the concept of a strike, at its core relates to the idea that workers should be protected and supported fairly for their contributions to an industry's product. So, there is usually a decent reason for a strike to take place. Regardless, many people are simply upset because they cannot watch new episodes of their favorite shows like The Office after this week and the backlash that this can create is starting to grow in the minds of the public.
And, on top of it all, this strike is a little different. Any strike by a creative union will be slightly different as the demands are usually not for health care or better hours. They usually have to do with royalties and pay scaling and this time around it is no different.
The symptoms of the WGA strike are slightly unfamiliar though – and may be a glimpse of the writhing, changing form of not only entertainment but of popular culture itself. Cultural industries have changed drastically in the past 10 years, growing from the mega-distribution factories that sprouted in the 80s and 90s into the digital wards of what has become the 21st century's unique production, online content.
Digital products are new for nearly anyone. The music industry is still trying to get a handle on how they split up revenues, handle piracy, and fairly distribute their product, and their products have been digital for years. The movie and television industries have only been online for a scant couple of years and the technology is still growing.
The first days of YouTube and iTunes video are still fresh in our memories and digital distribution of DVDs and TV shows is just now becoming feasible with the development of higher bandwidth and much larger, cheaper storage space.
So, it is little wonder that the industry is having trouble figuring out who should get paid for the products starting to be sold on the Internet. After all, there are so many hands in the cookie jar for any Hollywood production – how many of them deserve to stay in that jar when the product goes digital?
The writers, to this point, have been shut out. They have no share of the profits from digital sales of their work, and still retain the $.04 per DVD share that was worked out in the 1988 contract. Unfortunately, that royalty was decided upon when VHS was just starting to become available and no one was sure if home video would even be successful – it was expensive to make, more expensive to stock, and very few people could yet afford a VCR.
In 2007, everything is a little different. DVDs are incredibly cheap to make, everyone owns a DVD player and the next generation of home video is already well underway. All the while, the Internet continues to grow and the digital distribution of entertainment products is flourishing into a real business. The Office alone has sold more than 7 million downloads via iTunes in the last two years, generating over $14 million, none of which is distributed to the writers.
The problem is not that the writers and the producers cannot get along; it is that the concepts of entertainment and what is marketable have yet to be fully defined, mainly because they are constantly changing.
The same problems have been at least partially prevalent in the music industry, and in other industries that have yet to discover how an offline business model translates viably into an online venture that remains profitable. It is easy to say the writers are asking too much or the production companies are being stingy, but the truth of the matter is that the future of entertainment is in digital distribution and home video. For many films, more money is made in DVD sales and rentals than in theatrical releases – and soon online release will become a part of that pie.
This sort of problem will continue to develop and become more substantial as the Internet grows and becomes the central hub for our daily activities – gathering music, video, and information in a new way than we ever have before.
The writers strike is not just an isolated event and it may drag on for a few weeks because of that. It is representative of an entire industry trying to come to terms with its new identity, one that it did not choose for itself. We chose it, and if there's something a big industry does not like, it is the customers telling it what to do.
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