The model is just all wrong and that has become increasingly clear. The delivery system is making all the money and the creators are starving.
Whatever deal is struck the corporations will some how manage to find more “unintended consequences” that put more money in their hands than the artists.
WGA and SAG/AFTRA should not bend at all. Wait for the production companies to agree with you. They will come around , and the ones that come first will likely be the big dogs of future production. I could care less if my favorite stories are produced by Amazon or A24. What viewers are looking for is entertainment not labels.
Oh, and we were never your subscribers, but we have always been their fans. I think you are about to figure that out.
SAG/AFTRA and WGA should be picketing outside of Microsoft. Generative AI is repurposing their content billions of times a day. AI models are scanning, digesting and learning from their blood sweat and tears. That is the pile of money they need to be after. Microsoft just added $154B to their value in ONE DAY with their announcement of ‘Copilot.’ That equals the TOTAL VALUE of Disney. The unions and studios should join arms and go after the companies where their content is creating the most value: Open A!, Meta, Microsoft.
WGA member perspective on this: It's fascinating and telling how this piece explains how streamers expanded by overspending on huge movie stars and massive production value so, you know, BA had to come up with a helpful solution to pay writers without increasing their overall writer budget. Sorry, without what? Louder for the folks in back: WITHOUT INCREASING WRITER COMPENSATION. If they can overspend on actors and sets, they can compensate writers commensurate with the success of these projects we are creating for them. The whole model is broken, and was broken from the start. BA can't fix that, but the labor leaders are trying to. I mean honestly, this call for both sides to be more reasonable and empathetic reads like someone explaining to the Suffragist movement that we can stop all this trouble if women can try to see the sense in letting men do all the voting.
If I can be honest I'm getting tired of shorter and shorter seasons - it means constantly having to search for new shows to watch. Starting to watch traditional TV (Friends MASH etc) more and more - not just for the nostalgia but for the fact they have so many episodes. It takes a long time to finished a series.
This is supremely well-written and a true insight into how the best of BA approaches deal-making. I have been making deals for decades and my approach is similar: we are not at cross-purposes, but collaborators on how to serve both parties’ interests and come to a meeting of the minds that results in great content being made with mutually-beneficial remunerative outcomes.
I am summarily impressed with the explanation for where we are and how we got here -- from a perspicacious insider who has handle on the business and an approach that can help see the industry through this impasse... that is, once each side transcends their interest in “making a point [rather] than in making a deal.”
The model is just all wrong and that has become increasingly clear. The delivery system is making all the money and the creators are starving.
Whatever deal is struck the corporations will some how manage to find more “unintended consequences” that put more money in their hands than the artists.
WGA and SAG/AFTRA should not bend at all. Wait for the production companies to agree with you. They will come around , and the ones that come first will likely be the big dogs of future production. I could care less if my favorite stories are produced by Amazon or A24. What viewers are looking for is entertainment not labels.
Oh, and we were never your subscribers, but we have always been their fans. I think you are about to figure that out.
SAG/AFTRA and WGA should be picketing outside of Microsoft. Generative AI is repurposing their content billions of times a day. AI models are scanning, digesting and learning from their blood sweat and tears. That is the pile of money they need to be after. Microsoft just added $154B to their value in ONE DAY with their announcement of ‘Copilot.’ That equals the TOTAL VALUE of Disney. The unions and studios should join arms and go after the companies where their content is creating the most value: Open A!, Meta, Microsoft.
Gary
WGA member perspective on this: It's fascinating and telling how this piece explains how streamers expanded by overspending on huge movie stars and massive production value so, you know, BA had to come up with a helpful solution to pay writers without increasing their overall writer budget. Sorry, without what? Louder for the folks in back: WITHOUT INCREASING WRITER COMPENSATION. If they can overspend on actors and sets, they can compensate writers commensurate with the success of these projects we are creating for them. The whole model is broken, and was broken from the start. BA can't fix that, but the labor leaders are trying to. I mean honestly, this call for both sides to be more reasonable and empathetic reads like someone explaining to the Suffragist movement that we can stop all this trouble if women can try to see the sense in letting men do all the voting.
If I can be honest I'm getting tired of shorter and shorter seasons - it means constantly having to search for new shows to watch. Starting to watch traditional TV (Friends MASH etc) more and more - not just for the nostalgia but for the fact they have so many episodes. It takes a long time to finished a series.
This is supremely well-written and a true insight into how the best of BA approaches deal-making. I have been making deals for decades and my approach is similar: we are not at cross-purposes, but collaborators on how to serve both parties’ interests and come to a meeting of the minds that results in great content being made with mutually-beneficial remunerative outcomes.
I am summarily impressed with the explanation for where we are and how we got here -- from a perspicacious insider who has handle on the business and an approach that can help see the industry through this impasse... that is, once each side transcends their interest in “making a point [rather] than in making a deal.”