Studios, Writers Ratchet Up Rhetoric
Strike Sparks Spate Of Ads, Charges And Claims
By Linda Moss -- Multichannel News, 11/15/2007 2:35:00 AM
The bitter public war of words between striking TV writers and producers is escalating, with the studios running full-page ads defending their position on new-media residuals and scribes for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart skewering Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone in a video.
On Thursday, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers ran full-page ads in publications, including The New York Times and Los Angeles Times, essentially saying that the Writers Guild of America’s demands on compensation for content used online are unreasonable. The full-page ads marked the studios' second print advertising message this week over the issue of new-media residuals.
The guild, slated to picket at Viacom’s Times Square headquarters Thursday, and producers broke off talks Nov. 4 over the issue of residuals and the Internet. In its ad Thursday, the AMPTP claimed it wanted “to set the record straight” over what’s at stake.
“For electronic sell-through [like buying a movie on iTunes], the Guild is seeking at least a 700% increase over what writers currently receive, and more than a 200% increase over what they receive for Internet ‘pay-per-view,’” the ad says. “There is no way these increases can be deemed reasonable.”
The current residual rates for downloads are 1.8% of the producer’s gross for permanent use of digital content, and 1.2% for content downloaded for limited use. The WGA wants the rate to be 2.5%.
As for the WGA’s demand for compensation when their content is streamed online for free, the AMPTP says in its ad, “The Writers Guild is asking that writers get a percentage of what the Internet site owners receive in advertising revenue connected with the streaming content, even if producers are getting none of that money themselves.”
According the the AMPTP ad, “Simply put, what the Writers Guild is asking for has no precedent. No labor agreement in history has given writers, actors or directors a portion of advertising dollars.”
The public-relations battle ratcheted up in the midst of the WGA releasing data Wednesday from two polls that found the American public supports the writers.
According to Pepperdine University’s Graziado School of Business Management, a nationwide study found that only 4% of the public supports the media conglomerates, with 63% siding with the writers. The remaining 33% said they were unsure.
And a poll by SurveyUSA in the Los Angeles area found that 69% of adults familiar with the strike support the writers, while only 8% taking the studios’ side and 22% having no opinion.
“Public sentiment plus the economic disruption that the strike has caused can serve as powerful economic leverage and bodes well for writers in ongoing negotiations,” David Smith, a Pepperdine labor economist, is quoted by the WGA as saying in its press release about the two studies.
Out-of-work writers are picking up their pens and video cameras as weapons in the strike brouhaha, to produce clips critical of their employers.
The writers of ABC’s The Late Show with David Letterman, for example,have created their own Web site,
And the writers for Comedy Central’s The Daily Show have produced a clip that skewers the head of the network’s parent company, Viacom chairman Redstone.
Featuring Daily Show writer Jason Ross, and shot at a picket-line site on Wall Street Tuesday, the video incorporates video of Redstone. The clip cites Viacom’s $1 billion suit against YouTube for using its content without paying the media giant, and shows Redstone saying, “Getting paid is the name of the game.”
In the clip, Ross says, “When you’re not paying him, you owe him $1 billion. When he’s not paying you, he’s not paying you.”
Earlier this week, Walt Disney Co. and the WGA exchanged charges over comments the writers made in a flier they handed out while picketing outside the World of Disney store in Manhattan Wednesday.
In the leaflet, the WGA said that according to Disney president Robert Iger, his company is generating $1.5 billion in revenue from digital. The writers’ share of that is “$0,” according to the pamphlet.
In response, Disney accused the WGA of distorting the facts when the union claims its members don’t get residuals on new media from the entertainment giant.
"As the WGA knows full well, more than half of Disney's digital revenues are from sales of travel packages and the vast majority of the rest is from online advertising on sites like Disney.com and ESPN.com and through online merchandise sales,” ABC Studios, Disney’s TV production arm, said in a statement. “The WGA also knows its members have been paid residuals on entertainment content downloaded via iTunes.”
The WGA then issued its own rejoinder.
“We would better know the nature of Disney's and ABC’s revenues from digital if they would more fully and transparently reveal them to us,” the WGA said. “For example, their statement does not mention that much of the online advertising on their websites accompanies streaming video of our members' work in television and film for which they receive absolutely nothing. All we're asking for is a fair, respectful, small share."
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