It's officially unofficially over as writers have been told they can return to work (even though a formal vote has not happened).
The writer's guild is claiming a big victory, although the truth is quite a bit different. One win was a guarantee that on series w/13 episodes or more per season, producers must hire 6 writers... which now guarantees that streaming shows will be 12 eps or less, a loss for fans. The shows most effected are late-night talk shows, which have lots of shows and lots of writers.
There are other sorts of minimum number of writer rules, including adding provisions for young/new writers (10 week guarantees of work), but none substantively alter the status quo.
But the elephant in the room has been streaming residuals (which I predicted would never be based on publicly announced number of viewers).
The biggest loss for writers is that no-older show (like SUITS or THE OFFICE) will be affected (ie - no extra residuals for writers everything that's already on these streaming platforms right now). That is a giant loss for writers. But what about new, made for streaming, shows? This from Variety:
"For made-for-streaming titles that are viewed by 20% or more of the service’s domestic subscribers in the first 90 days of release, or the first 90 days of any subsequent year that the title is on the platform, writers will receive a bonus ranging from $9,000-$16,400 for a TV episodes and $40,500 for a feature film with a budget over $30 million.
This bonus structure takes effect for titles released after Jan. 1, 2024."
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So again, not a single show already on the air is effected.
But an even bigger fail was that even for new shows in 2024 and beyond will not be judged by actual number of viewers, but of percentages of subscribers - a subtle but key difference.
It means execs at Netflix and Disney won't have to release numbers of viewers, but rather only percentages of subscribers above 20% - in other words, if 1 out of 5 or more subscribes doesn't watch the show, it will not qualify for a bonus. It also means that actual number of views, either for the service as a whole, or for the specific show, are not calculated.
Also not calculated are foreign viewers - only domestic US viewers are counted - which means that 96% of the worlds population are not counted as viewers under this contract.
The WGA claims this will result in an increase of 76% in foreign residuals, but that is complete crap as the number of viewers are, again, based only on domestic clicks. In other words, if a show becomes a massive hit in India or China, but not in the US, it means no extra money for writers - NONE.
Devastatingly bad deal deal for streaming show writers considering that is where all new growth in viewers will come from.
There is, as of yet, also no indication of exactly how any of these numbers be calculated - presumably, the guilds must still rely on what the studios tell them, and as we know now studios like Disney have been lying about everything from viewers to budgets for years now.
Lastly, the other elephant in the room was protection from AI. How'd the writers do on that front? Well, writers are now guaranteed to never have to share credit with an AI writing device... even if that device is primarily responsible for the episode. They also can't lose money if it comes out that AI wrote most - or even ALL - of the episode:
"AI-generated material can’t be used to undermine a writer’s credit or separated rights,” the contract language states.
Which means even if a writer 100% used AI, that can't be used to "cheat" the writer out of money.
More importantly it also means that instead of discouraging the use of AI, this contract actually encourages it.
Perhaps strangest of all is that the contract is only for 3 years (this strike itself lasted nearly a 1/2 year), which means the writers know in their hearts it's not a "great" at all, but rather need time to pay their rent and save up for the next strike (which is sure to come).
In the end, this contract helped writers who least deserve it - those on comedy shows at networks with large writing staffs (these shows have seen their audiences cut in half since the time of Jay Leno and Letterman, which themselves were 1/2 of Carson).
It does literally nothing for every writer on every TV show or movie made up til now, nor does it add significant numbers of writers - new series merely need to keep their "seasons" to 12 eps or less (something most were already doing). Any real-world increase in pay will likely be evaporated by inflation - so essentially, this becomes a cost of living contract.
I suppose it's better than nothing for the writers, but by encouraging the use of AI rather than the opposite, it all but assures that they lose in the end b/c in 10 years time, studios will simply use AI w/o the middle men, who in that time will have become utterly reliant on the technology.
