WGA strike drags on

Protesting WGA writers this week picketed Jeopardy! which is recycling questions as the strike rolls on after 106 days.

Despite a promising meeting between the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers last Friday, it looks like the writers‘ strike is nowhere near a resolution.

But the AMPTP refuses to meet the union’s demands.

The WGA did bend slightly on a few items, according to media reports. But the union negotiators did not offer the significant concessions that the studio side was looking for in response to its own offer.

The guild has continued to hold to its proposal for a minimum staff size for TV writers, though it offered to lower the minimum by one writer. But the WGA was unimpressed with the AMPTP’s offer to give showrunners the authority to hire up to a certain minimum, which would increase based on the production budget.

The WGA wants to tie streaming residuals to the popularity of a show, but streamers have adamantly refused to share such viewership data.

The latest offer from the AMPTP, however, included a proposal to share the number of hours each show is viewed, though writers’ compensation would not be tied to that figure. The WGA continues to stand by its original proposal, raising questions about whether “hours” would be the correct metric to use, rather than views.

The lack of streaming residuals remains a major issue with the current residual model tied to reruns on television. Since cable-cutting is becoming so common, residuals are no longer a viable option for creatives to support themselves in the potentially months-long gap between jobs. Many notable actors and actresses have even highlighted this, posting images of one-cent and even zero-cent residual checks from studios.

Source: Variety, We Got This Covered