 |
| Originally Aired: November 5, 2007 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Film, Television Screenwriters Go on Strike |
|
|
| Thousands of screenwriters in Hollywood and New York went on strike for the first time since 1988 on Monday. A reporter who covers the entertainment business describes the issues that led up to the strike, including how profits are divided from DVD sales and online content. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
      |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
JEFFREY BROWN: Jay Leno in reruns, unexpected twists in the daytime soaps, and who knows how the story will end for your favorite prime-time drama? Writers took to picket lines in Hollywood and New York today, the first such strike in nearly 20 years. And we look at it now with Claude Brodesser-Akner, Los Angeles bureau chief for Advertising Age magazine and host of "The Business," a show about the TV and movie industries on Southern California's public radio station KCRW. Well, Claude, what's this all about? What's at the heart of the dispute? CLAUDE BRODESSER-AKNER, Advertising Age Magazine: Well, Jeff, if we could set the way-back machine back to the mid-'80s, it was then that the writers made what they couldn't have known to be the worst deal in history, but came pretty close. They sort of gave away the farm on what would come to be a $30 billion or $40 billion industry, and that's home video. At the time when these videocassettes were first being created, the late Jack Valenti referred to VCRs as "the Boston strangler." It was going to kill the movie business. Everyone was very wary about it. And so when the writers made this deal, they were somewhat skeptical as to whether or not it was in their interest even to have a thriving home video business. And the deal made was basically an 80-20 split. Without getting into too much inside baseball, it meant that 80 percent of the revenue that would be generated from home video would be reserved strictly for the studios and the companies that made these cassettes, and obviously now things have changed quite a bit. Things are on DVD. Things have gotten a little cheaper. The business became very robust. As a function of that, writers stand now to make about a nickel per DVD that gets sold. So it's really a pittance of what could have been a very, very big windfall for them. JEFFREY BROWN: So they feel they made a bad deal back then, and now the tech world has spun again to digital downloads. CLAUDE BRODESSER-AKNER: Correct, and they feel very strongly that the past not be their future. The great debate over is how anyone is to be paid for digital distribution, movies or TV shows that you would download on to your computer. And the writers want to make sure that they get their fair share going forward. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Studios fear losing profits
JEFFREY BROWN: And what do the studios say in response? Is it a question of not knowing how to divide up the profits or even what the profits are from the Internet?CLAUDE BRODESSER-AKNER: Well, there are two separate issues here. One is that what you'll hear from the studios time and again is, first of all, on the movie front, things have gotten -- even for the television side, too -- things have gotten more expensive. So any savings realized by the disappearance of physical media, that is these plastic boxes or these silver little disks, as that stuff goes away, true, there are cost savings associated with that, but really for them the point is, we're losing so much money, so many television shows don't make money, so many movies, you know, so much of the gross goes out the door and is paid to directors or stars that we can't really afford to give any ground on this issue. And the other factor is that genuinely both sides don't know how this is going to turn into be a profitable medium. It seems as though both sides are sort of grabbing at straws, negotiating the best way they know how. But if you look at current endeavors to find a suitable price for media content, no one really knows what the stuff is worth. I think that studios in general, networks in general are completely bewildered as to how much money they're going to make by putting television shows and movies online and how much they should charge, for that matter. |
|
|
|
Changes on scripted shows
JEFFREY BROWN: All right. I want to ask you, what will be the impact? I mentioned Jay Leno and others will be going to reruns right away. What can viewers expect to see immediately and in the coming days?CLAUDE BRODESSER-AKNER: Well, a couple of things. I mean, right away, if you're a fan of "The Colbert Report" or "The Daily Show," that's -- you're going to bed a lot earlier or maybe you're watching something else. But those are no longer options. Looking for the three, four, five weeks ahead for the remainder of the year, really, that's daytime television. There are enough scripts to keep you in "General Hospital" and Luke and Laura and that sort of stuff for the foreseeable future into 2008. And then things get sort of iffy. I mean, if we're talking about scripted series like "30 Rock" or "Lost," there is a few episodes that have been shot, but mostly the networks will begin to try and conserve those original shows for the long winter ahead. They're very wary about sort of losing the big draw for their advertisers. And you'll see a lot of stunt casting and specials, a lot more reality shows, as the networks try and preserve those original scripted series. It's really their big advantage going through this. |
|
|
|
Alienating audiences
JEFFREY BROWN: Claude, the last strike was said to have left fewer viewers. A lot of the audience, some people went away and just never came back. Is there a fear that that could happen this time?CLAUDE BRODESSER-AKNER: What we may see is that, in a protracted strike, TiVo and its clones may become even more important and may actually sort of allow people to zap even more ads, which is sort of bad for the overall economics of the business. And going forward, there's so many more choices available to people now. There's 99 channels now as opposed to the 20 cable channels that were available in 1988, which was the last strike. Of course, there's Web video, TMZ, every other kind of Web site, so no shortage of options for people who are looking for something else to do besides sit in front of their television and wait to be entertained. JEFFREY BROWN: OK. And the last strike went on for some 22 months or weeks, so we'll see what happens this time. Claude Brodesser-Akner, thank you very much. CLAUDE BRODESSER-AKNER: Thank you. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
