Plan
Introduction
1 Chronicle of events
2 Results of the strike
Bibliography Introduction The Writers Guild of America strike was the largest screenwriters' strike in the United States in 20 years, beginning on November 5, 2007 and lasting until February 12, 2008. The Screenwriters Guild's demands were to conclude a new contract with the Union of Film and Television Producers, in which the percentage of royalties to authors for sales of film and television products on DVD and on the Internet would be increased. During the negotiations, the parties were unable to reach an agreement, as a result the writers announced the start of a strike that lasted 100 days. The Western and Eastern branches of the Writers Guild of the United States took part in the strike, they were supported by the Actors Guild, many popular actors and politicians. The strike brought multimillion-dollar losses to the studios. The filming of many television series was temporarily suspended and postponed indefinite term filming some feature films and talk shows, and several film awards ceremonies were cancelled. The decision to end the strike was made on February 12, 2008, and on February 26, the Writers Guild announced the signing of a new contract with the producers. 1. Chronicle of events Negotiations between the Writers Guild and the Union of Film and Television Producers began on July 16, 2007. On November 1, 2007, the three-year contract between screenwriters and producers, which regulates the procedure for deductions, expired Money scriptwriters from film studios. On November 4, 2007, the screenwriters broke off negotiations with the Producers' Union and announced a strike. The parties managed to conclude a preliminary agreement only on February 8, 2008; on February 10, the leadership of the Screenwriters Guild approved the signing of a new contract, and two days later, by a decision of 92.5% of the total number of Guild members, the strike was stopped. 2. Results of the strike According to the final agreement signed between the writers and producers, the writers' royalties from DVD sales were increased, also for film and television productions distributed via the Internet, Cell phones and others modern channels distribution, writers will receive a fixed amount for the first two years and 2% of sales profits during the third year after the start of the agreement. The economic damage from the strike is estimated in different ways. Total losses are estimated at various sources from 1.3 to 2.1 billion dollars. According to the head of the department economic development Los Angeles Jack Kaiser, the strike's total economic impact on Los Angeles cost US$2.5 billion. The cancellation of the Golden Globes in January 2008 alone cost organizers $60 million. Many studios broke contracts with striking writers. According to research company Nielsen, as of the end of January 2008, the weekly audience of television channels decreased by 21%. Some American TV channels have lost up to 50% of their audience. Bibliography:

Steve Gorman Hollywood writers vote to lift 14-week strike (English). Reuters (2008-02-13). US screenwriters have begun their biggest strike in 20 years. Lenta.ru (2007-11-05). Q&A: Hollywood writers "strike (English). BBC (2008-02-13). Clinton and Obama supported the striking writers. Lenta.ru (2007-11-06). Ceremony The Golden Globes have been cancelled. Lenta.ru (2008-01-08). Letter from the Presidents (English). Writers Guild of America, West (2008-02-26). TIMELINE: The Hollywood labor dispute (English). Reuters (2007-11-27). WGA strike costs CA $2.1 billion. Variety (2008-06-05). The writers' strike cost Los Angeles $2.5 billion. Lenta.ru (2008-02-20). US TV channels lost a quarter of their audience due to the Writers Guild strike. Lenta.ru (2008-01-31).

A year ago, in November 2007, millions of television viewers and TV series fans in the United States and around the world realized that they might soon lose the opportunity to watch their favorite talk shows and new series of films. On November 5, 2007, US film and television screenwriters went on strike, which ended up costing film and television studios almost three billion dollars in losses and became a watershed moment in the history of the television industry.

American TV series are the most popular in the world, they are translated into dozens of languages ​​and purchased by hundreds of TV channels. "Desperate Housewives", "Dr. House" , "Staying Alive", “Heroes” and much more - all this was invented and made in America. 12 thousand writers working on scripts for films, TV series and talk shows for American television are united in the USA Screenwriters Guild. Every three years the Guild enters into a contract with Union of Film and Television Producers. The contract determines the percentage that screenwriters must receive from the studios' profits. Every time the signing of a contract is accompanied by long negotiations on controversial issues, and 2007 was no exception. This time, the main discussion revolved around royalties to screenwriters from the sale of television series and films on DVD and via the Internet. The Guild insisted on increasing these payments. The parties deliberated until November 4, but were unable to find a compromise. On November 5 thunder struck - US screenwriters go on strike. According to her rules, they had to hand over all drafts to a special repository, and no longer write new dialogue or make changes to already created scripts.

The last such writers' strike took place 20 years ago, in 1988, and then cost the industry $500 million. Experts predicted that a new riot could cost Hollywood a billion dollars, but they were wrong - three months of downtime brought three times the losses.

Already at the beginning of the strike, it was clear that it would hit daily talk shows and daily television series the hardest.

Screenwriters with placards in their hands picketed the offices of the largest film and television studios, and meanwhile the crisis began to manifest itself. Every day there were reports in the press that another show or series has been stopped. Filming of popular TV series has been stopped "Desperate Housewives" and "24", "Grace's Anatomy" and "Prison Break" and many others. Meanwhile, TV bloggers and fans of the series, far from being outraged by the lack of new episodes, decided to support the writers by posting letters on their blogs and collecting tens of thousands of signatures in support of the strike. Famous people, from actors to politicians, also spoke on the side of the writers. However, time passed, and it was not possible to reach an agreement.

TV channels were forced to show reruns of old episodes and were rapidly losing audience. News began to come in about disruptions in the filming of full-length films - the film “Pinkville” by Oliver Stone, the films “Angels and Demons” with Tom Hanks (prequel to “The Da Vinci Code”), “Shantaram” with Johnny Depp, “The Rum Diary” with him.

That the situation had become very serious indeed became clear when the 65th ceremony was disrupted presentation of one of the most prestigious film and television awards "Golden Globe". The magnificent ceremony was supposed to take place on January 13, 2008, but the Writers Guild announced a boycott of it back in December 2007, and on January 4 the American Actors Guild joined them: both the nominees and presenters refused to participate in the celebration. As a result of the Golden Globe 2008 was held in the form of a modest press conference. Numerous receptions, parties and tourist events were cancelled, with total losses reaching up to 60 million.

The stubborn scriptwriters chose Oscars ceremony, which was supposed to take place on February 24. Unable to allow this to happen, the producers suggested that the writers resume negotiations. As a result, the scriptwriters won the right to receive 2 times higher fees than before, and promised not to make new demands for another three years. But crucial moment has already arrived in the television industry, and neither producers nor writers can now return everything back to its pre-strike state.

On February 13, 2008, Writers Guild President Patrick Verone officially announced that the strike is over. On February 14, after a hundred days of inactivity, most of the writers returned to work. Three billion losses, the virtual disruption of the Golden Globes ceremony, the premieres of promising films delayed by an average of a year and episodes of the most popular TV series delayed for months - this is how the strike turned out. But experts say its main consequence is that TV viewers, feeling "entertainment hunger", they simply swapped the TV screen for a computer monitor. Due to the lack of new scripts, TV channels have lost up to a quarter of their audience. People are increasingly looking for entertainment products on the Internet, and many of them do not plan to return to watching television - unlike TV, you can find something new on the Internet at any time of the day or night.

Johnny Depp

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So, there was no new writers' strike, and Hollywood safely returned to business. It would seem that there is nothing to discuss about the missing event - you never know what happened and where. But the threat of a strike itself is an important indicator of how the entertainment industry has changed in recent years. Today we will try to understand the reasons for the failed strike, the factors that allowed the writers to win without a fight, and the possible consequences for the industry if the authors of films and TV series actually went on strike.

What they didn't like

In April 2017, almost the entire Writers Guild (96%) announced its readiness to start a new strike. 20,000 people, whose collective brains created most of the products shown today on American TV, in cinemas and through paid Internet services, prepared to take up protest banners. The timing was not chosen by chance: contracts that establish the rules of the game between the largest film studios and American professional guilds are usually concluded for three years, and this May the moment came when the Writers Guild of America (WGA) was once again supposed to shake hands with The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), representing the interests of entertainment industry giants (Comcast Corp., Walt Disney Co., CBS Corp., Viacom Inc., Time Warner Inc. and Twenty-First Century Fox Inc.).

The writers would like to renegotiate the contract on new terms that are more favorable to themselves. Actually, they want this every time the old contract expires, but they do not always have the courage to announce it. Everyone understands that organizing a strike is not an easy task, it takes a toll on your pocket (after all, while you are on strike, you do not earn money), lasts an indefinite amount of time and, in addition, does not guarantee victory. To get involved in a strike, things in the profession need to go very poorly. And in 2017, it seems that just such a situation has arisen. But unlike the guild's past performances, their main grievance is now not with film studios, but with online services.

In general, every time script writers go on strike, it means that they do not want to be left behind by technological progress. In 1960, the Screenwriters Guild demanded that authors be paid a percentage from the showing of their films on TV, in 1973 - from demonstrations on cable channels, in 1988 - from sales of video cassettes, in 2007 - from DVD distribution and online rental . After all, if studios profit repeatedly from content, then why should the creators of this content suck their paw?

In 2017, the writers decided to point out to everyone the leap cable channels and streaming platforms have made over the past few years. Today, these platforms are actively luring viewers from cinemas and terrestrial TV, producing high-quality and diverse serial content, and all this would be nice if new TV series were not made according to a new scheme. Unlike broadcast television networks, which pack each season of their shows into approximately 22-23 episodes, streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon make seasons much shorter - the standard here is an 8-10-13-episode season.

There is a clear reason for this: in order to compete with TV, new players are trying to make their shows more cinematic, spending not two, but 3-4 weeks on filming each episode - of course, it turns out to be impossible to produce 22 episodes a year in this situation. The overall quality of the products, of course, is increasing. In practice, the new standard means less annual work for the screenwriter hired for a project (and less money, since royalties are paid episode-by-episode instead of weekly). Worse yet: Since work contracts often prohibit authors from working on several projects at the same time, it turns out to be impossible to hack on the side. This has already led to the fact that the earnings of screenwriters writing “short seasons” have fallen by an average of a quarter, while the income of online content producers is only growing. With the explosive, record growth in the number of scripted shows (last year there were as many as 455 such series in the United States), the creators felt that their wallets were only getting thinner from season to season.

It is not surprising that WGA members considered this situation unfair and demanded to compensate for the imbalance by equalizing fees for 10-episode projects with general salaries in the profession: in their opinion, it should not make a difference for which platform you compose, because in any case the author works with with full dedication. If, in addition, we take into account that not only are more episodes filmed on terrestrial TV channels, but also the minimum salary for screenwriters is almost twice as high as on cable or streaming, then the stratification among fellow professionals is completely glaring.

In addition, digital technologies today do not allow tracking “repeats” (or rather, they do, but the owners of streaming platforms hide data on the number of views), which have great importance on TV. Previously, for each television showing of a film or series, the author was owed a penny, and it was not difficult to calculate the amount of such payments. How to calculate royalties on the Internet in the absence of transparent reporting is another question...

A formal reason was needed for the strike, and the Writers Guild of America found it - it put forward “ultimate, very expensive and impossible demands” at the negotiations, which, of course, no one was going to satisfy. This gave rise to the announcement that employers were incompetent to negotiate and to uncover the banners. The calculation was clear to everyone: in order to stop the strike and return everyone to their jobs, employers must come up with their own proposals, which, of course, will be worse than the conditions requested, but still better than that what happened before. For the strikers, any such concession is a victory, and they already know that the less you demand, the less you get in the end. Hence the “very expensive” initial requirements, leaving room for bargaining.

Among their other demands were also an increase in contributions to the pension fund, an annual increase in fees by 3%, an increase in the minimum health insurance by 1.5% (until now the studios have not increased, only reduced funding) and the possibility of obtaining parental leave without loss workplace.

How it was done before

To understand what a Hollywood strike could lead to, it is enough to remember how the previous one ended. The first and so far only strike of the Writers Guild in this millennium, which started on November 5, 2007, broke out for the standard reason for such strikes - due to insufficient royalties. The writers wanted to receive a percentage of DVD sales and Internet rentals, as well as other high-tech distribution means such as downloading films to mobile phones. The strike was organized competently: 12 thousand angry screenwriters, “Let’s go on strike!” posters, picketing of large studios, “changing of the guard” every four hours.

Hollywood still remembered the strike of 1988: although at that time the screenwriters, who demanded percentage payments from videocassette sales, achieved almost nothing, the strike still hit the industry hard. Studios were forced to shoot many of their films from unfinished scripts, and in TV, the strike disrupted broadcast plans scheduled months in advance. Continuations of a number of series were released months late (the famous “Moonlight Detective Agency”, which fell in the ratings due to a long period of inactivity, was completely closed). The quality of late-night TV shows has dropped noticeably, and soap operas have become ungodly dumber, and their plots have stopped going anywhere. All this contributed significantly to the exodus of 10% of the audience towards cable channels - a blow from which mainstream TV is believed to have never recovered. This is not counting the half a billion dollars in lost profits from television companies.

In 2007 it turned out no better. If film studios prepared for the war in advance and, just in case, bought in advance all the scripts they could get their hands on, then TV channels operating with multi-episode formats could not make a large supply - this meant a greatly truncated television season, and on some reality shows, where the scriptwriter had almost no you need it, you won't last long.

Taking into account the fact that there were no steam platforms at that time, and cable did not have the influence it has today, the crisis hit primarily terrestrial TV. Evening shows, left without full-time joke writers, featured their own TV presenters " naked kings”(and not at all “witty from God”, which many considered them to be) and lost a significant part of the audience. Due to the departure of the writers, many series received truncated seasons with short story arcs (including “Friday Night Lights”, “Desperate Housewives”, “Prison Break”, “The Office”, “Law and Order”, “House”, “Lost”, “How I Met Your Mother”, “Bones” and many others). The initial seasons of “The Big Bang Theory” and “Breaking Bad” almost became the last due to the crisis (however, “Breaking Bad” only benefited from this, since the suddenly cut off season finale saved one of the main characters from being “cut out”, developing into a powerful character over the next years). The release of some series was delayed by a year, others were completely canceled, and already filmed episodes were put on the shelf.

The strike also affected film production: everyone remembers how weak the films “X-Men: Origins” turned out. Wolverine”, Bond’s “Quantum of Solace”, “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”... These and other films, despite the high budgets that became a disappointment for viewers, were filmed from draft scripts, and film sets there were no authors who could quickly correct the wobbling plot. The authors were resting: the guild forbade them to respond to any cries for help.

The strike lasted 100 days before the writers achieved their desired increase in royalties of up to 2% for the showing, purchase or download of each of their films. According to the most conservative estimates, the guild’s demarche cost Los Angeles $2 billion. During this time, a number of major award ceremonies were canceled (the disruption of the Golden Globe alone, boycotted by many movie stars, cost $60 million), and about 60 television shows were closed. Weekly television audiences fell by 21%, and some American channels lost up to half of their audience. 5% of viewers stopped watching TV altogether, successfully switching to alternative media.

Some screenwriters, we note, also suffered: not only did they not earn anything during the strike, but then they could not find work for a long time, as a result of which they left the profession. Other authors, faced with the same problem, were forced to switch to cable channels and streaming platforms (with which they had a serious conversation by 2017). Television also learned a lesson from the strike: since 2008, the channels have been flooded with “unscripted” TV shows, which do not require the ability to form letters into words.

What could happen this time

About the same thing would have happened as in previous times, only with a noticeably increased magnitude. Maybe the scriptwriters were aiming mainly at streaming platforms, but the strike is a total phenomenon: it would shake up all related industries, including television, cinema and advertising production. After all, if a screenwriter is a member of a guild, then during a strike he has no right to work anywhere, even if they promise a lot of money for it. As a result, the viewer would again be faced with unsuccessfully joked TV presenters, and in the longer term, with truncated seasons of highly rated (including “The Walking Dead” and “Game of Thrones”) and debuting television series, the closure of some television shows, “half-baked” Hollywood blockbusters...

On the other hand, on the so-called field. There would be a huge surge in unscripted reality shows, since the loss of one side always means new opportunities for competitors, who would not fail to take advantage of them. The producers of Canadian TV series in English, who are not obliged to take into account the demands of the US guilds, would also have their share: the strike of 2007-2008. allowed some shows in this series to break into the American market, and now, a decade later, Canada would hardly refuse a new chance.

Redistribution of viewers between existing series would also be inevitable, because when a favorite show turns into crap, a capricious consumer is not inclined to tolerate it. Sooner or later, he starts clicking the remote control in search of something better - and an alternative is sure to be found, since the choice of serial entertainment today is wider than ever.

What the parties ultimately agreed on

At the very last moment - in fact, on the day the proposed strike began, a few minutes after the expiration of the previous contract - the industry bosses, with a sigh, agreed to make peace with the rebels (which was a great relief for both sides). Former head WGA Patrick Verron, who participated in the negotiations, described the parties' new agreement as a "good deal." The strike was cancelled, everyone continued to go to work, and the protest posters remained gathering dust in closets until better times.

Although at the time of the announcement of the verdict, behind-the-scenes trading with representatives of the studios was still ongoing, all members of the guild interviewed by journalists were satisfied with the “preliminary agreement”: the Alliance of Film and Television Producers satisfied their demands in an acceptable form. Namely: the scriptwriters of the series will receive a certain fixed amount from stream resources in the form of remuneration in the first two years and 2% of profits from sales in the third year. Royalties from television broadcasts, in turn, will increase by 15%. On projects where work on each episode requires the involvement of the author for more than 2.5 weeks, screenwriters are now entitled to an additional payment. Health insurance has reportedly strengthened “for years to come.” A number of other issues still need to be resolved, but overall the conflict can be considered resolved, and, apparently, coming years There is no threat of a new screenwriters' strike in the industry.

Why the threat of omission worked

The guild's threat worked for three reasons. First: any major studio in the United States has signed a contract with the WGA and, accordingly, is now obliged to deal only with their writers. No outsider dares to write a film, a serial pilot, or a single line for a TV show, otherwise the guild will issue a fine and forever ban its authors from dealing with such a studio. You can, of course, hire students who work for food... But if you want to work with good writers (and this is what all content producers want - at least in words), you need to respect the rules established by their “roof”. Arguing with the guild is an unprofitable activity and is fraught with a lot of problems in the future; Serious people don't do things like that.

The second reason - unchanged for all Hollywood strikes - is that the demands of the screenwriters, whatever one may say, were entirely justified. The development of the entertainment industry has entered a phase that can be called “the era of quality TV series and new ways of distributing content,” and the need to resolve the related financial issues has indeed become urgent.

The third reason follows from the second: screenwriters, not feeling professionally and socially protected, would lose much less in the event of a strike than their employers (it is clear that a person who really has something to lose cannot be forced to go on strike). For comparison: if the 2007 strike brought the industry two billion direct and indirect losses, as well as a bunch of problems that echoed in the following years, then in 100 days the strike took away only $340 million in lost royalties from the screenwriters.

This time the power of their inaction has grown - if the scriptwriters had refused to work, the damage would not have been limited to two billion.

Experience shows that as a result of the last strike, serial production was the first to suffer - and this happened 10 years ago, when the modern “serial renaissance”, which the specialized media love to talk about, was at the very beginning of its heyday. Today, when manufacturers entertainment content, and international audiences are hooked on American series more than ever, the consequences of such a strike would be much more severe. The same set of things - a drop in product quality, a collapse in ratings, unconcluded advertising contracts, disrupted work schedules and lost salaries, a new hole in the California budget - in 2017 would have been aggravated by the dissatisfaction of overseas consumers in many countries, for whom watching new series of some some "Walking" for Lately turned into the same habit as Pushkin’s Silvio - a glass of vodka at lunch.

There are a lot of TV series, they are crowding out traditional cinema, pulling the blanket over themselves and taking bread away from traditional cinema. Most of the good storytellers already work there, it was with their brains that the notorious renaissance was created, and if you replace them with “cheap labor” from somewhere in the UK, then it is quite possible that the “serial miracle” will collapse as quickly as it blossomed (not to mention that companies that hire “guest workers” bypassing the guild will be blacklisted by it, and WGA members will begin to bypass their offices on the tenth route). The new reality makes its own adjustments: today’s strike is no longer equal to yesterday’s, because if it has become so that “serials are the new cinema,” then the industry now depends on the writers of these series much more than before. And whether content producers want it or not, the pie will now have to be cut in a new way.

At the same time, few doubt that the decisive role here was played by the memories of the last strike: in the eyes of the industry, the 2007 strike became an eloquent example reporting on possible consequences production downtime. And without such an example, it is still unknown how everything would have turned out.

Of course, if the screenwriters go on strike and get their way, it only benefits the screenwriters themselves. Representatives of other professions - primarily technical workers - simply sit for some time without work, and no one ultimately increases their salaries. For example, the last strike left almost 38,000 people unemployed. (It is not yet clear what pitfalls a failed strike will result in for the scriptwriters themselves, but it is possible that increased costs for content production will lead to a decrease in the number of ordered series - that is, in the future it will become more difficult for a scriptwriter to find a job than now. But the authors, Apparently, they are ready to put up with such risks.)

Not everyone sympathizes with the scriptwriters. On Internet forums where the impending strike was discussed, you can see user comments in the spirit of: “they have multiplied,” “they are shaking up their rights,” “they are preventing people from working.” This criticism is partly correct: they have proliferated, they are pumping, and they are in the way. On the other hand, any film or TV show begins with a script, and turning out good scripts on an empty stomach is problematic, and if the industry forgets about this, then smart pens are always ready to remind it. Not now, but in 3 years (or 6, or 9, or 12) they can tap their boots on the lectern again - and as long as professional guilds exist, studios are forced to keep this in mind.

Will time pass and the rules of the game will change again? Well, if necessary, “we can repeat it.”

Hollywood Writers Guild may go on strike over streaming services

• Monitors and TV

A decade ago, Hollywood screenwriters brought the entertainment industry to a standstill when they shut down their work for three months in a dispute over payments for films and TV shows distributed online and on DVD. The strike shut down dozens of television and film productions and hit the Los Angeles economy.

Now there is a feeling of déjà vu in the Hollywood community as the threat of a strike looms again. Following the collapse of negotiations with major studios, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) is lobbying its members to support a strike.

The tense atmosphere is a result of sudden economic and digital changes affecting business. There have been major shifts in the industry since the last writers' strike. Streaming services like Netflix and Amazon have transformed Hollywood and contributed to the release of an unprecedented number of quality series, a phenomenon sometimes referred to as the "golden age" of television.

But times have not been golden for many screenwriters, who now have less work to do. Shorter seasons are the new norm, with many series running at 10 episodes or less across cable and streaming—less than half the length of a traditional TV show season. This has led screenwriters to a financial crisis, as many are unable to work on multiple projects per season due to the terms of their contract.

"It's getting harder to be a screenwriter than to make a living," noted producer John Bowman. television programs And former manager WGA Negotiating Committee.

More and more TV viewers are abandoning cable television in favor of streaming. Studios are also grappling with significantly lower DVD profits and declining multiplex attendance. They produce fewer series and episodes per year, which means fewer options for screenwriters.

All this paved the way for conflict. From April 19 to April 24, there will be an online vote for permission to strike. The move is a typical union bargaining tactic, and the WGA notes that it is a response to the hard-line stance taken by studios that have yet to waive their terms.

“Nobody on the board or on the committee wants a strike,” Chris Keyser, co-chair of the Guild's negotiating committee, said in an interview. "Unfortunately, the only way to earn fair treatment is to use the power of labor.”

He disputed the studios' claims that the WGA was the first to break off negotiations, and added that dialogue broke down last week after the studios left a voicemail to prevent writers from coming back the next day. "We haven't quit," said Keyser, a writer and executive producer whose credits include the TV series "Tyrant" and the family drama "We're Five."

The Motion Picture and Television Producers Union, which represents major studios, networks and independent producers, said it would like to resume negotiations but is still awaiting a response to its latest proposal, which writers consider a step backwards.

“Keeping the industry going is in everyone's interests and we are ready to return to negotiations,” the Producers Union said.

Negotiations resume on April 10, but mutual understanding is far from clear on many issues. The possibility of a strike caused mixed feelings among screenwriters across the city. Apparently, the Guild is divided in half. More experienced screenwriters who lived through the 2007-2008 strike are skeptical of the idea. The writers who came to the Guild and the business after these events are guided by their own needs.

One of the main reasons for the contention is the development of shorter seasons on TV shows. Now, according to experts, two thirds of all TV series consist of 8-12 episodes per season, whereas previously their number varied in the range of 22-24 episodes. The WGA says screenwriters' weekly income is declining because studios are so behind on royalties. This is because TV series are becoming more cinematic and require much more filming time. Filming an episode that used to take two weeks can now take three to four weeks.

Complicating matters is the lack of transparency. Streaming services operate on a subscription basis and do not provide viewership data, which makes it difficult to develop a formula for residuals - fees for re-runs. For decades, the way to make a profit from TV series was as simple as filming the first season, hoping it would be renewed for 100 episodes, and then selling reruns to cable channels or local broadcasters. And as Netflix and other services continue to gain popularity, writers are demanding that these companies pay balances that are commensurate with those offered by traditional broadcasters.

But such services are not the only source of disagreement. Benefits are as much a problem as the age of the Guild members. WGA wants studios to increase plan contributions health insurance Guilds at 1.5%, which has been experiencing a deficit in recent years. However, the studios refused this proposal and cut funding by $10 million a year.

The Guild is asking for a 3% increase in script fee minimums for the lowest-paid writers. A recent letter to WGA West members stated that average salary TV movie producers' earnings have fallen 23% over the past two years, and entertainment companies made record profits of $51 billion last year.

The previous strike began in November 2007 and lasted 100 days, more than 60 transmissions were closed. This is the largest screenwriters' strike in the United States in 20 years. Then the Screenwriters Guild demanded that a new contract be concluded with the Union of Film and Television Producers, which would increase the percentage of royalties to authors for sales of products on DVD and on the Internet.

Experts in labor issues noted that the detrimental effect of the strike helped the writers achieve success they might not have otherwise achieved. As part of the agreement, the authors receive a fixed amount for the first two years and 2% of sales profits in the third year. However, the strike was financially devastating for many other industry workers, especially technicians and art workers, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck.

Preparing a new strike. The heads of the union prepared for negotiations with Hollywood studios, giving them “ Ultimate, very expensive and almost impossible requirements", and the deadline for their consideration is only two weeks. According to sources, the Guild is preparing to go on strike, for which they need a formal refusal from the studios of the first proposal.

« There is no chance that the WGA's requirements can even be considered in two weeks, says the source of the publication. - This was a step calculated so that, after a refusal, there would be a reason to vote for authorization of the strike».

What does this mean for everyone else? Why did the writers decide on a new strike? What exactly are they protesting against? Who could be harmed by a strike? I tried to answer these questions.

When will it become clear whether there will be a strike?

The current compensation agreement between the studios and the Writers Guild expires on May 1. This agreement was in force for three years, but in fact most of the conditions in it have been working for decades without changes. Screenwriters are unlikely to go on strike before May.

However, whether it will start at all will become clear earlier - by the end of next week, a so-called “authorization vote” should take place within the Guild, which will give the heads of the union the authority to announce a general strike. If you believe the comments of insiders and sources of specialized publications Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline, a strike is inevitable.

In total, the Writers Guild of America seriously protested three times - in 1960, in 1988 and in 2007-2008. And if almost no one noticed the first two strikes outside the United States, the protest of 2007-2008 proved that in the context of a globalized content market, the problems of the industry in the United States will affect all territories.

What are the writers unhappy with?

The simple answer is the amount of money. A complex answer is just that: complex.

Since the 1980s, screenwriters have been considered the least protected category of workers in Hollywood and significantly lose out to both the Directors' and Actors' Guilds in standard contract terms. In addition, comedy writers receive significantly reduced fees compared to drama writers, and screenwriters in traditionally lucrative areas of the industry have lost a significant share of their profits over the past 10 years.

By many estimates, net profit Hollywood in 2016 amounted, for a moment, to $51 billion. This amount includes all studio profits from theatrical, television and streaming content. The screenwriters believe that they put a lot of effort into this - and received the least compensation, compared to their colleagues.

In many ways, it is the scriptwriters who are responsible for the so-called “television renaissance” - the flourishing of high-quality and diverse serial production. The problem is that writers who write for cable and streaming broadcasters and platforms receive significantly less money for their work than their counterparts on broadcast television. In addition to the fact that short seasons of 8-13 episodes are accepted on cable and streaming (and the writers receive a fee per episode), their minimum bid almost two times less than the rate of a screenwriter for an on-air channel. That is, the screenwriter of, say, Chicago Fire earns not two, but almost four times more than the screenwriter of, say, True Detective, and more than five times more than the screenwriter of The Man in the High Castle.

What are the writers asking for?

Increases in standard fees, proportional increases in fees if a series has a “short season”, equality between compensation schemes for screenwriters - regardless of what platform they write for, social guarantees for screenwriters (minimum health insurance, maternity leave- unpaid, but without loss of work), an annual increase in the minimum fee by 3%, like directors, the right to deduct a percentage of the profit for the sale of content in addition to the minimum fee.

In addition, the screenwriters emphasize that there is still a problem of discrimination based on gender and race, including in labor compensation (if translated into human terms, screenwriters and authors of other races and nationalities receive lower fee than their colleagues - white male Americans - for the same work).

If there is a strike, which shows will be affected?

Exactly 10 years ago, the WGA already announced a strike, and if you take a closer look at the 2007-2008 television and film season, everything becomes clear. But the first to suffer, naturally, is the viewer.

The most vulnerable category, which will be the first to feel the consequences of the strike, is considered to be daily and weekly entertainment television. First of all, Late Night comedy shows are at risk because they rely on a strong team of comedy writers. Therefore, the projects of John Oliver, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon, as well as the legendary “Saturday Night in live" Meanwhile, these are the ones television projects, which most ridicule - and which, ultimately, most keep in line - the new presidential administration of Donald Trump. Therefore, if the audience did not feel so painfully temporary leave political satire in 2007, then in 2017 the question is already becoming almost an edge.

Moreover, in 2007, David Letterman and his production Worldwide Pants was able to reach a separate settlement agreement with the WGA and had its writers working during the strike. But that's solely because Letterman always paid his writers well above market wages and made significant concessions to the union. Letterman, meanwhile, has been retired for a long time, and other productions of evening satire do not have such agreements with writers.

On the other hand, there is a category of projects that benefit from the scriptwriters’ strike - this is unscripted reality. During the 2007-2008 strike, non-scripted reality projects, such as “The Big Race,” “Big Brother,” game shows and news shows, significantly increased both the number of episodes and ratings.

Also in 2007-2008, US television channels aired series produced in Canada or co-productions using Canadian scriptwriters. The most successful of these shows were “Stargate: Atlantis,” the fourth season of which had just entered production, and “Lincoln Heights.”

Another category of television shows that writers consistently keep on the “black list” due to the fact that during the strike they began to actively hire writers who are not members of the guild and foreigners - soap operas. Throughout the 2007-2008 strike, the series All My Children, As the World Turns, General Hospital, One Life to Live, and The Young and the Restless, as well as the teen show Power Rangers, hired writers outside of trade union, or from other countries. By the way, the animated series “South Park” continued filming as planned, but its authors and creators Trey Parker and Mat Stone never joined the Guild.

During the previous strike, it was the TV series of broadcast channels that suffered the most. However, 10 years ago cable did not yet enjoy such fame (“Mad Men” was just beginning its triumphal march on the AMC channel), and streaming platforms did not exist at all, except for YouTube. Shortened seasons, spoiled story arcs, and crumpled final episodes had to make do with the series Bones, Criminal Minds, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Friday Night Lights, Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, and Dr. House, Lost, How I Met Your Mother, Law & Order, The Office, Prison Break and The Simpsons.

The first seasons of such series suffered, and miraculously such future hits as “Breaking Bad” received an extension for a second season. "The Big Bang" and "Gossip Girl."

They did not enter production on time, or were postponed “until better times”, which is why they lost a significant part of their budget for the first season, the series “24”, “Chuck”, “Battlecruiser Galactica”, “Hannah Montana”, “ Private Practice" and "True Blood".

The following projects were completely closed or not put into production at all due to the writers' strike: “Men in Trees”, “Life in wild conditions", "Life Aboard Zack and Cody", "Scrapbook" and "4400". Many of these series have 5-13 episodes filmed but not aired.

It is the writers' strike of 2007-2008 that is blamed for bad season and the subsequent dismissal of almost the entire group of animators and authors of the animated series "Sponge Bob square pants" After the strike, the general consensus among fans was that “Bob is no longer a cake.”

Did television suffer as a result?

And how! According to a Nielsen study published on April 2, 2008, during the strike (exactly 100 days, from November 5, 2007 to February 12, 2008), broadcast television lost from 5% to 25% of its audience. In total, 4.7% of broadcast television viewers did not return to television viewing at all, having discovered cable television, online services and other alternative media during the strike. On average, prime ratings in the US fell by 6.8%.

The direct damage from the strike of scriptwriters for broadcast TV channels during the strike is estimated at around $1 billion, indirect - another $1.5 or even $2 billion. Moreover, during the 100 days of the strike, the scriptwriters received only $340 million in royalties.

Has cinema suffered?

More than 200 actors and directors joined the writers' strike, dozens more expressed public support for the pickets and supported the strike financially, including Ben Affleck, Alec Baldwin, Angelina Jolie, Eva Longoria, James McAvoy, Joaquin Phoenix, Kristen Bell, Reese Witherspoon, Robert Redford, Tom Hanks and Viggo Mortensen. By the way, the strike was publicly supported by the presenters directly affected by it evening shows on television - David Letherman, Jon Stewart, Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, Howard Stern and Ellen DeGeneris joined the picket in a joint statement.

Writer Ray Bradbury also supported the strike, and several literary agents and one large publishing house united to create a special fund, which was used to buy coffee, buns and sandwiches for the picketing studio writers.

As for the film projects that suffered the most from the strike, first of all it was Bond. Quantum of Solace, often cited as the worst film in the new James Bond series, was filmed without writers on set. Daniel Craig said in an interview that he had to "improvise or even write lines for himself and his interlocutors in half the scenes," and took responsibility for criticizing the film's script. “I’m not a writer and I don’t know how to write,” he confirmed after the film’s premiere in 2008.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the first film in the ill-fated superhero trilogy, was, according to an LA Times report, "rewritten on the set by studio officials." The movie is so bad that it almost killed the entire X-Men franchise for Fox.

As JJ Abrams later said, “Star Trek” had to be filmed according to the second draft of the script, and the director could not make changes to it.

Also, Michael Bay for a long time attributed the critics' dissatisfaction with the Transformers sequel to a strike by the writers - they say, Revenge of the Fallen had to be filmed almost without a script in order to meet the filming schedule. However, as the practice of the following films showed, with a screenwriter on set, the films from the Transformers series did not become any better, nor did critics like them any more. Well, Michael Bay found his fans, and each of his films collected their own considerable box office, so the director has nothing to complain about.

How will the writers' strike affect the industry this time?

Deadline estimates that the union still owes about $400,000 in back pay from the previous strike. Individual screenwriters who held key negotiating positions during the previous strike have still not received compensation from the studios - one of them is still owed more than $30,000 by the studio, six more than $20,000, and seven others more than $10,000 in compensation. About 10 authors said goodbye to screenwriting forever, as they were unable to find work in television after the strike; about 40 more retrained as authors for alternative platforms and write exclusively for cable and streaming services.

However, this year the studios are not the main culprits of the strike: the scriptwriters intend to fight specifically the telecom industry (which predominantly owns cable broadcasters) and Internet giants. These platforms, unlike broadcast television, do not have the safety net of news or reality TV, and their subscribers choose each month whether to pay for the service or opt out if they do not like the content. That is why, according to experts, in such conditions the strike is unlikely to last 100 days, and the issue will most likely be resolved much sooner.

Well, for my part, I promise to closely monitor the situation.

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