SansPoint

I don’t watch much television, and it’s not because I’m trying to be an elitist, literary asshole. It’s mostly because I don’t get home in time to watch much TV these days.^[1] The writer’s strike, therefore, isn’t really affecting my life. However, as a writer with dreams of publication, royalty checks, film adaptations and other fun things, I’m curious to see what’s going to happen with this.

Really, it’s hard to take the side of the studios when they’re making more money than they have in ages, or suing YouTube for one billion dollars.^[2] If online content is worth one billion dollars of lost profits to Viacom, shouldn’t the creators of that content get at least a pittance? Clearly, the studios think not. It’s a classic tactic in discussing copyright and the internet to trot out how downloading movies and TV shows deprives poor, starving artists, actors, writers and stagehands their fair share. They stick this PSA in front of every movie now. Of course, the writers aren’t actually seeing any money from legit downloads of these things. They’re getting less than half a percent of the gross from home video sales. This may have made sense when home video was new and untested, but now it’s big money, and nearly all of it profit.

I’ve never seen any compelling argument for the studios, except for online distribution of media being an untested market. This cries of bullshit, especially with the rapid growth of video-on-demand and streaming through sites like YouTube. People are definitely interested in getting things without physical media. The biggest obstacle there is bandwidth, and it’s quickly becoming less of an issue. Of course, it’s important that we do hear the studio executive’s side of the argument, too. Equal time and all.^[3]

Combine the greed of media executives with the growing amount of consolidation in the media arena, and you have a recipe for disaster. What’s likely to happen if this strike doesn’t work is a mass abandonment of the traditional media companies in favor of independent production, Internet distribution, and other means of spreading out entertainment without getting involved with big media. If it does work, writers actually make money from the distribution of their works online, and big media has to settle for 98% of their current profit margins.^[4] One way, the studios shoot themselves in the foot. Another way, they survive with only damage to their pride. I’ll be happy with either.

1. I do, however, make it a point to watch The Food Network when I can. Good Eats is the greatest cooking show since Graham Kerr put a pan to a stove, and The Next Iron Chef was a just plain good culinary soap opera. ↩
2. It’s hard to read that amount without putting your little finger to the corner of your mouth, like Dr. Evil. ↩
3. Mad scientist’s assistant, studio executive, TV’s Frank can do it all. ↩
4. This percentage pulled out of my rear, but the point remains. They’re not hurting—the writers are. ↩