Digital Distribution Tangling Up Writers Guild of America Talks, Strike Looms

In case you were unawares , the contract between Hollywood producers and the Writers Guild of America was supposed to expirea few hours ago , conduce to a possible strike , meaningbad thingscould happen . One of the major issues is digital content and distribution — after getting screw over by the terms of how they were yield from video and DVD , set many lunation ago , they ’re leery of lose out on stacks of cash yet again . Since a large number of capacity is snuff it online in an infiniteness of formats — web - exclusive content , full instalment replays , ARG , etc . on internet site , iTunes and the whole works — the full term are unavoidably just as complicated . Right now , writers only get coin if a viewer pays to see the goods , making ad - supported Hulu , for representative , a black hole for them no matter how many users tune in .

What the social club ’s asking for with online or wandering distribution is 2.5 percentage of the “ distributer ’ gross revenue . ” Apparently this is tricky for distributors because it ’s unmanageable to recount what per centum of the on-line audience is new to a show or quondam custody simply shifting to a different medium — I’m guessing this is a job for the issue at hand because producer do n’t require to pay writer twice for the same consultation .

But , it seems unjust to only recompense writers for content explicitly purchased by viewer ( like on iTunes ) , particularly as more and more content shifts online endorse by ad , even if that advertizing revenue is nowhere near what is for broadcast for the time being . It ’s only going to get handsome , so they should get a hold of what they can , while they can , lest they feel screw once again in a few years . [ WSJ ]

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