At the time of writing this editorial, the current news was that the leaders of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) were recommending their 10,500 members to vote for the latest proposal from the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers (AMPTP).
Finally it seems like the 15-week Hollywood writer’s strike will soon be coming to an end, or perhaps it already did by the time this issue is published. So much money has been lost, starting from the $730 million in wages and the economic impact of over $2 billion, according to NPR news.
This strike has caused a calamity of people losing their jobs, including non-writers, such as make-up artists and production crews, a dead Golden Globes ceremony, annoying reruns and reality shows like “American Gladiators,” but I’m glad the WGA were steadfast in their cause.
According to comScore, Inc., the leading source of digital media measuring, 10 billion videos were viewed online last December alone by U.S. internet users. It is utmost unfair that the studios don’t give a percentage of their gross revenue to the writers from this media, which is the future.
In two to five years, television sets will be connected to the Internet, making them digital and allowing for downloads and streaming.
According to the WGA website, $1 billion is estimated to be gained from video downloading within the next three years and an estimated $3 billion for streaming within the next couple of years.
The AMPTP should follow the radio industry’s protocol of compensating recording artists each time their song is delivered online. Not only is this proper business ethics, but it should be the law! It’s as if they’re stealing from these talented writers.
The WGA did a good job in making the world realize how valuable and underpaid they are. The WGA website stated that the major studios and networks made $95 billion, not including residuals from the digital media. However, a writer’s average income is $62,000 per year within a five-year period of employment and unemployment.
The studios argue that the economics of digital downloads is not established well enough to correlate with the writer’s financial demand. That’s baloney.
By
Anoushka Valodya/Editor