Here’s A Thought…

The Writers Guild of America has been on strike for almost a month, looking for a percentage of movies and shows via internet, DVD and new technology revenue streams in general. Last night they rejected an offer from Hollywood studios and networks—the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers—which would add 130 million to the 1.3 billion they annually pay writers. In other words, 10% more of what they’re already making. Now, if we understand this correctly, the writers just want their fair share of the new media pie, not an extra 10% flat fee. So this offer smells like an attempt by the studios to buy the writers off before they discover how much money Hollywood is really making off them. After all, these are the same studios that bitterly complained about how much money they had to pony up to A-list movie stars and then did more of the same when the stars made even more loot when they decided to forgo their salaries and take a backend percentage of the profits instead. In other words, they always want to have it both ways. And this particular instance of hemming and hawing smells quite fishy.

Here’s the thing: if you add to new media revenue streams ad integration—blatant advertising of a product or service within the plot of a show—and free content streamed with accompanying high-priced advertising—an everyday thing on network websites—we suspect perhaps the networks don’t want these negotiations to uncover how much they actually charge advertisers and furthermore that they might even be overcharging them for these spots. Could it be?

Hmm…