Personally, I think the Hollywood studio and network heads all need to submit to a corporate performance management survey and take their share of the blame for the 2007 WGA Strike, or as it is otherwise known, a big *edited* mess!
Even though networks and studios are making a small but growing killing off Internet downloads, media streaming, cell phone downloads and of course, DVD sales, they are too greedy to admit they need to share some of the fat of this undiscovered country with others. Currently, writers are paid a pittance - four percent - on DVD sales and nothing on all those episodes of The Office you downloaded to your iPod for $1.99 per episode.
I haven’t seen anyone specifically state, in hard figures, the WGA’s demands, but it seems clear to me that the DVD percentage should rise modestly to about six percent - which would represent a 50-percent raise - and that this six percent figure should be extended to cover all forms of electronic media sale, whether they are sold via Sprint cell phone, iPod Touch, Xbox 360, PC download or whatever other way they can dream up to sell episodes of free TV shows for $1.99 a pop.
That’s only $0.12 per episode out of the studio’s pocket, and about $2.99 per typical $49.99 “complete season” DVD collection to be divided among the writers of a typical 22- to 24-episode season.
It’s not much money until you start selling millions of copies or downloads. And studio fat-cats are calling the writers unreasonable?
Unless writers blink, which doesn’t seem likely this time, it seems to me the Six Percent Solution would represent a good middle ground for everyone to settle on. So: can we just skip the six months or so of work stoppage, agree to it now, and get everyone in Hollywood back to work, please? NBC has already fired over 100 employees involved in producing The Office, with no guarantees of being able to reassemble the same crew six months down the line when this finally does shake out.
Real lives are being affected by the work stoppage. I’m not talking about writers here, even; I’m talking about the much-less-well-paid techies who make the entertainment industry tick. Let’s skip the protracted thing and just get on with both sides being reasonable enough to settle where we all know they ought to be anyway.
