You may not realize this, but a lot of the TV shows you watch are going to be off the air soon. Late night talk shows are already off, like The Daily Show and Light Night. "The Office" has aired is last episode for the forseeable future and other sitcoms like "How I Met Your Mother" will be done by the end of the month. Dramas like "Lost" or "Heroes" won't be on much longer than that. The reason why is that the writers of these shows are on strike. Their contract with the TV and movie studios has expired and the new contract they've been offered is entirely unfair.
Without writers, there is literally nothing for actors to do. The lines they read, the places they say them, the special effects, the stage direction, all of that is "written" in one way or another. Writers are an absolutely integral part of the entertainment industry. With them on strike, there is literally nothing for anyone to do because that is all the product of a writer's imagination.
20 years ago, another writer's strike ended with a bad deal for writers. The studios insisted that the home video market was too new and the costs of producing video casettes too high for them to be able to afford more than 4 cents per video sold as a residual to the writers. $0.04.
Residuals are a system which already benefits the studios tremendously. Though some think of it as a bonus, its actually a deferred payment against the lifetime value of a script. Basically, instead of paying more upfront, the studios defer payments until the income potential is realized. This also means that the studios pay more for shows that make them more money. Basically, its a fair deal that benefits both parties but most especially the studios.
The home video market, the studios said, was not a lucrative one. It was too new and untested for them to be able to afford much of a residual payment. At the time, most writers got most of their residuals from repeats on networks or in syndication. The writers conceeded this to the studios. Since, then, though, home video has exploded. Moreover, production costs have gone dramatically down. So, the cost of manufacturing home videos (now DVD's) has much less and the income has gone way up.
Writers still just get $0.04 per copy sold. Meanwhile, networks have severely cut back on repeats of first run shows so that income source has gone way down for writers. Writers get 2.5% of the income generated by repeats. They could have asked for the same with DVD's. Instead, they just asked for 4 cents more. The studios refused to discuss this and the writers eventually were willing to withdraw this demand in exchange for concessions from the studios on other issues. The studios refused any additional concessions.
Those other issues primarily involve "new media". That means the internet. Gosh, who uses that thing? Actually, that IS the studio's position. You see, the internet is a new, untested market with limited income potential. They can't afford to pay writers much for it. Evidently, the writers think they've heard that before.
The writers are asking for 2.5% of revenues from online sales and advertising with streaming episodes. Have you ever watched a TV show online at a network's site? Most of them offer it these days and they embed ads that you have to watch to see the episode. That's "streaming".
The studios are offering the same the same deal as DVDs for online sales through sites like iTunes in spite of next to no overhead costs. As to streaming video, they are offering nothing. As in $0.00. Indeed, they've taken to demanding that writers write and produce online only content without even being paid up front. Streaming episodes with ads are to be classified as "promotions" and no payment is owed writers or actors or directors for them. Even with original web content. Nothing is simply not a fair deal.
The studios are insisting that there is no money to be made online. Well, insisting to the writers. When pumping up their stock value to Wall Street, they have a different story to tell, waxing poetic about all the money they are making with online revenue.
This is about greed, but not on the part of the writers. Their demands are modest and really just act to limit the losses they are experiencing with networks reruning less shows. They'll lose a lot more on the strike than they'll get in the end, but its about preparing for the future of the entertainment industry and that future is the internet. The huge media coprorations know this, too. They just don't want to share. They want to make money off the writer's work without compensating the writer. That's just not fair.
A lot of people look at writers or actors and think what they do is easy or fun. Hey, I'd love to be a professional writer, myself. But I know how hard writing is. Creating a story is challenging work and for most writers, it isn't steady work either. They may only get a pay day every couple of years. That's why residual payments are important to them. I'm sure many of them do enjoy what they do, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be fairly compensated for their work. It doesn't mean they should be denied a fair wage.
Like I said, I know how hard writing and others have explained this a lot better than I have. I strongly recommend reading
United Hollywood, an unofficial blog started by striking writers. You might also want to check out some of this great videos by some of the writers of your favorite shows explaining the strike...