Rich Fiscus
23 Oct 2007 11:17
You may have heard that Writers Guild of America (WGA) members have voted to authorize a strike at month's end after months of failed negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). What isn't as well publicized is that one point of contention is royalty arrangements for online TV show distribution.
The problem appears to be that content providers want to use online distribution as an excuse to pay less for the same product. They've suggested paying royalties as if internet television were the same as home video, which would result in lower royalties for distributing recently aired TV shows online than airing them on television.
The problem is that model doesn't accurately represent the public's viewing habits. While there are certainly a small number of consumers renting or purchasing older TV episodes online, by far the biggest market segment for online TV viewing consists of people watching content from within the last few weeks, which is the same model most television networks are using to determine what to provide free on their websites.
John Bowman, chair of the WGA negotiating committee says that it makes sense for payments to be at least as high for distribution on the internet, Cell phones, and other new and expanding outlets as they are for traditional TV broadcasting. "Management, however, has refused to accept this interpretation, and has even threatened to do away with residuals altogether in this new medium, or to impose the outdated and unfair home video formula," said Bowman in a statement. "Given that residual income can amount to between 20 to 50 percent of a writer's income, we clearly can't allow management unilaterally to dictate this most essential contract term."
The producers are playing down the strike vote. AMPTP president Nick Counter issued a statement of his own, saying "a strike authorization vote is a pro forma tactic used by every union in the country and usually the vote is overwhelmingly in favor of a strike. We are not surprised with the outcome of this vote, given reports of how this election was conducted. Our focus is on negotiating a reasonable agreement with the WGA."
Source: Ars Technica