Guild of America (Wga) Strike

¶ … Guild of America (WGA) Strike

As of Monday November 1, 2007 the Writers' Guild of America (WGA) is officially on strike, having been unable to come to a contract renewal agreement with the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers (AMPTP). Strike avoidance mediation has failed to fully resolve the major issues that the Guild has, mostly with regard to payment of writers. The effects of this strike are yet to be seen, but if the 1988 22-week strike of the same guild gives us any indication it could be a long and expensive phenomenon. Many laypeople are intensely interested in how the current Writer's Guild of America strike will affect the television shows they watch and enjoy every week. To the average person the fear of not being able to catch up on the storylines of the dramas and enjoy the comedy styling of various talk show hosts is the extent of their concern. Yet, this strike may have much more far-reaching effects on television, now and in the future as television transitions to a multi-media venue. (Los Angeles Business "Strike Halts Production..." November 7, 2007 NP)

Research Question:

This work will address the possible short- and long-term effects of the WGA strike on television. The face of television is clearly different than it was even in 1988, when the last major strike occurred, and changes will continue, exponentially as more and more people become involved with reality television, seek other forms of entertainment or watch their shows online in streaming video.

Review of Literature:

As of November 7, 2007 a list of 13 shows had stopped production and/or went into rerun mode. Many will not likely return in new formats until the strike is resolved. The major contention of the Guild is that writers are not adequately compensated for DVD releases and multi-media programs they work hard to help create, even though advertisers are supporting the airing of these programs, mainly on the internet. (Los Angeles Business "Strike Halts Production..." November 7, 2007 NP) the writers would like to know, why if advertising dollars are being generated why they are not receiving adequate compensation for the airings. The industry, including all the major networks as well as many pay networks, site that the internet venue is simply to new to generate enough ad dollars to compensate everyone and in addition most were just barely able to resole contract issues and technical issues for the internet venue with advertisers and technology development agencies. The industry would simply like a bit more time to adequately address the issue and fairly compensate all involved. The industry also claims that the finical status of multi-media venues are simply an unknown at this time, as research and development were significant expenses, that have not yet been covered by ad compensation. (Dumenco 2007) by Novemeber 12th the report is no better, as some non-writer workers on shows that are suspended from production have been threatened with lay-offs and officials from WGA and the AMPTP are predicting along strike with the assumption that talks will not even resume until the beginning of 2008. (Grossman, 2007)

The parallels between the 1988 strike, that you will remember lasted 22 weeks, are actually quite significant. The Writers were then seeking to resolve royalties disputes over new media, in 1988 that was the now ancient Video Tape recording industry, yet their complaints were the same. This new venue is forcing contract negotiations that further devalue their services creating a loss even when evidence suggests that the execs are still raking in the cash and the industry is recovering from the change. (Eisendrath, 1988) the 22-month 1988 strike cost the industry an estimated $500 million in revenue, but the figure is a drop in the bucket at today's rates, and also does not include subsidiary losses, to support businesses or other industries. (Grossman & Guthrie, 2007)

According to Young, a frequent contributor to Forbes, the key factors in determining the effects of a strike is determining how long it will last. He goes on to gives some observations about historical financial conditions, or predictive results of a 2001 strike which was averted,

In 2001, with another writer's strike looming, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan commissioned a Milken Institute study that looked at potential job loss under several different scenarios. In the worst case, a five-month strike could have cost the city $6.9 billion in lost income and 54,600 lost jobs. (2007, NP)

Young then extrapolates this old report, forward to the present strike and stresses that in Southern California alone, with a five-month strike, job loss in the industry could reach 30% (72,000) and this is not including support businesses, "such as limousine drivers, caterers, nurseries, film labs, location and laundry services." (2007, NP) Additionally Young is concerned that viewer ship will significantly decline, in the short- and long-term, as individuals seek alternative entertainment, such as alternatives offered by the internet of video games. (2007)

Perhaps the greatest irony is that critics opine that television writing today is some of the best in the medium's history. Consider House, the Office and the now-departed the Sopranos. At the same time, reality television, which hires mostly editors, producers and people off the street rather than writers and bona fide actors, has gained a significant presence on network and cable television. Any long strike may kill these great shows and others, put thousands out of work and leave the door wide open for much more reality TV. (2007, NP)

The concerns are clearly widespread, and from financial to entertainment motivated. The strike has already changed what many people are doing in the evening, and may do so even more in the future as the length of the strike may determine if individual shows tank, due to loss of viewer interest when they resume.

One last issue, not mentioned above is the potential for further advertiser loss. Ads are often sold in contract form, and if viewer numbers drop below contract levels networks must make up the difference or return ad money. This strike is occurring across the busiest ad season of the year, Christmas and many ad buyers are thinking of the possibility of asking for funds back so they can blanket other venues to regain the losses, and just as the industry is probably going to be coming back online they then must give precedence to the 2008 election rather than making back lost revenue for advertisers. (Advertising Age "Strike-bitten TV sellers fear coughing up cash." 2007, pp. 1,27) the loss of advertising dollars, in the busy season, as well as in the 2008 election year will likely seriously effect the ability of the networks and those who produce shows for them to continue to offer quality programming when the writers return to work, in at some unknown date in the future.

Analysis:

The review of literature, including the comparative analysis of the 1988 strike situation gives the impression that the strike is likely to be a long one, that will be detrimental to the industry as well as the economy. Television, is in a period of transition that is clearly going to change its face, many times over the next few years. The beginning is the ability of live streaming video to offer the same programming, for free and on demand. This change is significant, as the strike makes clear, because writers and other professionals will continue to demand that networks respond by appropriately accommodating them in this transition. The WGA has learned from experience that when changes occur, that threaten the fiber of the industry, they and others on their level often get left out of the equation, until such time that the networks again feel secure in their dominant position as the major entertainment supplier of the U.S. (and many international markets). The same thing happened when people began to be able to video tape their favorite programs or buy or rent movies to fill the time television had previously dominated. The writers were the last to know why the executives were still making millions while they were taking pay cuts or remaining at previous levels of pay. (Cooper, 2001)

On the other hand these changes for the industry will very likely result in significant losses, as more and more time is being taken away from television, to be filled with other forms of entertainment. (web surfing, video games, DVDs (some pirated) online music downloads) the industry must respond to this conservatively, to counter the effects of these changes. Entering into an on-demand format, with streaming video on the web is the way that the industry has determined to counter this concern, and the manner in which this is compensated is still up in the air. The industry also responded wholeheartedly to the public's desire for reality television, which many argue does not offer writers as many jobs as other television venues.

Overall, network-TV comedy has an ever-shrinking audience -- and sitcoms have an ever-shrinking share of prime time, thanks to cheaply made reality TV. As USA Today's Bill Keveney recently noted, "The broadcast networks [are airing] fewer than 20 live-action, 30-minute sitcoms, about half as many as five seasons ago.... No sitcom has finished in the top 10 since 'Everybody Loves Raymond' in 2005." (Dumenco 2007, NP)

This may lead some to conclude that the writer's strike will actually have less of an effect on the industry than expected, because so much of their work has been replaced by primetime reality television offerings and therefore when they are not working there is always something else to watch. Again, this remains to be seen, as there are still many diehard fans who would rather continue to watch sitcoms and television news broadcasts, though trends show that even these venues are dying off as more and more people seek their news from the ala cart news offerings of the internet. In short it can be argued that the writers hold less of the share of television viewing offerings than they have in the past and therefore the strike might not be so bad, though this would be hard to argue to individuals participating in the strike or getting laid off because of it.