the gist of the writer’s strike

So the writer’s strike is over. Sweet. I look forward to the return of some of my favorite shows ( The Office, Scrubs, and Family Guy). Studios and writers are in agreement for now, and maybe until 2011, which is when the next negotiation would take place.

During the strike, the Writers Guild of America (“Writers”) made numerous demands. The one that received the most attention concerned the Writers’ share of online revenue. They reached a deal, and here are some of the main points concerning the online revenue:

- The Writers will receive 2% of ad revenue from pre-existing programs online that were streamed on the Internet. This includes shows like The Office, where you can watch full episodes on NBC.com. The catch is that the agreement fixes the ad revenue per episode so no matter how much the studio actually made in ad revenue per episode, it’s fixed. The Agreement fixed ad revenues at $40,000 per episode. So the writer’s 2% will be fixed for every episode, which comes out to $800 per episode.

- The Writers get the right to audit the books of the studios to determine how much they actually make from online ad revenue.

- The Writers increased the revenue share they get from programs downloaded online.

- The Writers have the ability to earn revenues for new material that’s created specifically for the internet. This is important because this is the area for growth.

The Writers gave up millions of dollars in opportunities while picketing. Also, many people believe that the writers should have focused more of their demands on DVDs and syndication. This is because online piracy and TV on the Internet will most likely increase, so it may take a while for the deal to be profitable for the writers. Instead, they focused mostly on downloads and stream revenues.

On the plus side, the deal does open the door for the Writers so that when studios make money online, so do they. This wasn’t the case before. This will be very important for writers as consumers demand more online content.

~ by legal1 on March 2, 2008.