Online Content Boom Fuels Threat of Writers' Strike
The growing number of online shows and Web-only content is increasingly becoming a source of contention with the Writers Guild.
The studios don't pay the writers standard wages and
the writers are either non-union or are union scribes working
with a non-union contract. Tensions are running so high
that there is a real possibility of a writers' strike looming
on the horizon in Hollywood.
CBS has a mockumentary, "Clark and Michael," while ABC's "Voicemail" is a voyeuristic peek into the life of a twentysomething single guy.
The Web series reflect the networks' headlong drive to harness the Internet and lure a young, and increasingly elusive, audience. Yet the online rush has heightened tensions between the major studios and networks and the unionized actors and writers who fear being shortchanged by this new digital frontier.
To handle much of the Web work, networks are relying heavily on nonunion scribes and guild writers who are quietly working outside of union contracts. In some cases, networks and television studios have created separate nonunion companies to create original online entertainment on shoestring budgets.
They also have launched digital studios that serve as "farm teams" for new concepts on the Web that might one day get drafted for the major leagues of prime time.
The issue of how to compensate talent for work distributed online is central to contentious contract talks with writers -- and could trigger the first major strike in Hollywood in nearly two decades.
"The more it looks like television is migrating to the Internet, the more important it is for us to ensure that writers are covered under a writers guild contract," said Patric Verrone, president of the Writers Guild of America, West. "We certainly don't want to get left behind the way we were with cable television, reality TV and animation."
Network executives are loath to further inflame the issue by discussing it publicly. Privately, however, several studio and network executives said they were not trying to circumvent the unions but instead attempting to adapt to a changing landscape in which entertainment plays out on multiple screens.
Many likened their situation to being in a vise grip, squeezed on one side by advertisers and fans demanding more online entertainment while pressured on the other side by guild officials who insist that ground rules be established first.
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Exacerbating tensions are the existing labor agreements, which are vague on wages and other forms of compensation for those writing for the Web.
The main agreement contains provisions that seem anachronistic in the Internet age, such as a stipulation that the length of promotional clips cannot exceed 4 minutes, 26 seconds, an arbitrary calculation rooted in older technology, namely the running time for 400 feet of film.
This really is the biggest issue facing the Writers Guild today. Original web programming is simply exploding. Will Ferrell writes and stars in short films which are Web-only. And the hit show Heroes has talented graphic novelists working overtime to create stories that supplement the show's mythology. Technology has made much of the language in these contracts outdated. The studios still need the Writers Guild; it's time to come to the table and hammer out a deal for digital content that's fair to everyone, including writers.
