How Long Before Your Shows Go Dark?

“Network bosses, rich and rude...we don't like your attitude!”

It’s been exactly one month, and your favorite TV show might be feeling the effects of the writers strike.

Television shows like "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," "The Colbert Report" and "Saturday Night Live" are already airing reruns. Some midseason shows, beginning in January, like "24," are suspended until a new season can air continuously without interruption. Viewers now have to find alternatives to some of their favorite scripted shows, such as “The Office, “The Big Bang Theory” and “Heroes,” because production has stopped indefinitely. (Check out how many epidsodes are left for your favorite shows at TV Guide's Strike Chart.)

With over 12,000 writers affected by the strike, who primarily work on live-action, script-driven television programs, soon primetime will consist of heavy doses of reality, game shows and reruns.

And it’s not just behind-the-scenes people who are walking the picket line, many celebrities also support the strike. Such events like “Bring A Star to Picket with You” allowed actors to join in the picking. The Tonight Show" host Jay Leno rolled up to a picket line on his motorcycle with doughnuts for striking writers at NBC. Actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus marched with picketers at Warner Bros. and in New York, Tina Fey of "30 Rock" joined strikers outside Rockefeller Center. (There is also a long list of over two hundred celebrities that are striking and many more who support the strike in general.)

BACKGROUND

The Writers Guild of America, both east and west, are two labor unions that represent film, television and radio writers working in the United States. The strike is against The Alliance of Motion Picutre and Television Producers, a trade organization that represents the interests of American film and television producers.

Every three years, the Writers Guilds negotiate a new basic contract with the Alliance of Motion Picutre and Television Producers by which its members are employed.

The three main reseasons for the strike: DVDs, reality and animation agreements and the Internet.

DVDs

In 1988, the Writer's Guild went on strike over the home video market. At that time, the entertainment companies argued that home video was an unproven market, with an expensive delivery channel manufacturing VHS. Movies were selling in the range of between $40-$100 per tape, and the writer's guild accepted a formula in which a writer would receive a small (0.3%) percentage of the first million of reportable gross (and 0.36% after) of each tape sold. As manufacturing costs for video tapes dropped dramatically and the home video market exploded, writers realized that agreeing to this formula may have been a mistake.

Debuting in 1997, DVDs replaced the more expensive VHS tapes slowly until they became the dominant format around 2001 and eventually became less expensive to produce, market and purchase, while the previous VHS residual formula continued to apply.

The members of the Writer’s Guild of America claim that a writer's profits made from subsequent airings or purchases of a program, are a necessary part of a writer's income that is typically relied upon during periods of unemployment that are common in the writing industry. The WGA has requested a doubling of the rate for DVD sales, which is eight cents (up from four cents) per DVD sold.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers has refused to consider changing the formula. They say that DVD sales are necessary to offset rising production and marketing costs.

REALITY & ANIMATION

Another ease of dispute is how the WGA's Minimum Basic Agreement should apply to other reality television. Many producers of reality programming argue that since these shows are mostly, if not entirely, unscripted, there is no writer. The Writers Guild of America believes that the process of creating interesting scenarios, culling raw material, and shaping it into a narrative with conflict and storyline does constitute as writing and should fall under its contract.

The Writers Guild of America has an ongoing disagreement with The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, also known as The Animation Guild about which union should represent animation writers. The only animated television programs that are affected by the strike are "The Simpsons," "Family Guy," "King of the Hill" and "American Dad."

INTERNET

Writers also want royalties from "new media," all the various places their works are now distributed, including Internet downloads, streaming and "on-demand."
Currently, the WGA has no arrangement with the companies regarding the use of content online. There are two specific types. The first is Internet sales where the consumer purchases a copy of the program and downloads it to a local storage device for subsequent viewing at their convenience. Examples include movies and television shows purchased through the iTunes Store. The second is "streaming video", the consumer watches a program in real time as it is transmitted to their computer but is usually not saved. Current examples of this model include those available at NBC.com, ABC.com and CBS.com.
The WGA has proposed that writers receive 2.5% of distributor's gross for new-media sales and distribution. The companies have thus far refused to address this proposal, and have instead proposed that Internet sales follow the same formula as DVD sales.

AGAINST THE WGA?

Some late-night shows will be back on air. CNN.com reports that on December 3, NBC's "Last Call" with Carson Daly became the first late-night show to return to the air with fresh episodes since the Hollywood writers' strike began. Daly is not a member of the writers guild and produciton on his talk show, which tapes several days ahead, resumed to save members of his staff from being layed off.
"I said, 'Let's turn the lights on, I'm gonna come back.' It's that simple," Daly said on the show.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR CNY?

The general public questions whether their favorite TV shows will continue airing new episodes, while the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, faculty and students are concerned about how the strike will affect the television and film industry. The writers' strike could affect Newhouse students who want to be writers. What will happen for them after graduation? An article from TMCnet, talks about how one Syracuse alum is left unemployed by the strike.

The last such strike was the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike; it lasted 22 weeks, costing the American entertainment industry an estimated 500 million dollars. Currently this strike has lasted 6 weeks so far and could cost CBS, ABC and Fox a combined $300 million. It is unclear how long the present strike will continue, though insiders say a settlement is unlikely before the start of 2008.