The shutdown has had a lot riding on it for everyone
Andy Marken October 2, 2023
0 Comments
The Beast is a sentient creature who represents the highest form of humans' evolution. He believes the time of ordinary humanity is over. I hope this makes you feel calm. You will be in the presence of something greater. Dennis, Split, Universal Pictures, 2017
Source Split Universal Pictures
Right about now, both sides of the first joint WGA/SAG-AFTRA (writers/actors) walkout in more than 60 years and their adversaries, AMPTP (studios, networks, streamers), have finally found one thing this would be a great business if it weren't for the people.
Even the simplest of issues - pay increases and streaming residuals - have yes but and how about problems that can be worked out so that neither side is happy with it but that's what makes a good agreement.
And when you have about 20,000 writers and 160,000 entertainment professionals involved, there will be a lot of questions and issues that go unanswered or aren't addressed.
The biggest challenge is that the two unions are different from most unions.
Consider the UAW, the UPS drivers union, hotel staff unions or teachers unions. The pay, challenges, pain points are similar if you've been a member for one year, 10 years or
With the WGA/SAG-AFTRA, there are perhaps 10 percent of these folks (A-listers) that AMPTP members actively solicit for specific projects, and they usually negotiate their specific contracts.
Most are folks you may kinda recognize from something you don't really recall, someone who has been diligently/effectively doing their job for years or newer members who want to perfect/refine their expertise and work in a business they like/love.
On the other side of the table are the 350 AMPTP members, many of whom took a much needed break in mid-July to take their private planes to the annual Allen & Co Sun Valley Conference where the who's who of the financial, media, technology world get together to unwind, network, golf and occasionally do deals.
Deal House - Every mid-July, Allen & Co turns the Sun Valley Lodge into a cool respite for studio, tech and other executives to get together and talk about their problems/issues and perhaps along the way make a deal or two but that's later. Right then, it's about escaping with your peers.
Source Sun Valley Lodge
Better known as the Summer Camp for Billionaires, they needed the break because many - WBD's Zaslav, Netflix' Sarandos, Amazon's Jassey, Disney's Iger, Meta's Zuckerberg, Google's Pichai and others - have had a tough year paring staffs (firings), tearing up/reassembling their organizations and figuring out how they can use the new tech toy unmonitored AI to their advantage.
Studio and tech executives have been under hellacious pressure from Wall Street analysts and stockholders to make positive changes that will improve their organization's free cash flow during a period of unprecedented industry transformation as the industry and world changes all around them and under their feet.
Disney's overhaul (eliminating 7,000 positions) produced cost savings of $5.5B. WBD's pockets of improvement produced similar staffing reductions and savings. Paramount reduced its staffing by 25 percent. Other networks/studios made similar improvements.
At the Allen retreat, Bob Iger - with a two-year contract extension in his pocket - said that his team had identified certain no-growth businesses and was focusing on repairing/improving the company's creative engines.
The entertainment and media industry has changed significantly since 2019 and the usual guidelines and checkpoints that studios/networks previously used don't exist today.
They're working/dealing in new/unfamiliar territories.
John Landgraf's (FX Networks' CEO) Peak TV which he coined to describe broadcast, cable pay TV continues to shrivel as original scripted programming gets replaced by unscripted game, reality and non-fiction shows that are easier/cheaper to produce for the rapidly dwindling day/date viewer base.
At the same time, network's/studio's rapid leap into the ultra-promising direct-to-consumer streaming content environment that Netflix and Amazon pioneered (along with YouTube, Hulu) back in 2007 hasn't gone as smoothly - or as rapidly as Wall Street analysts projected.
Who knew the fickle subscribers wanted/expected a steady stream of new, unique scripted movies/shows to watch when, where and how they wanted or would resort to what MediaPost's Wayne Freeman called Peak Churn - the rapid/continuous hopscotch of streaming subscription?
Buddy Talk - With a new 2-year contract extension, Disney's CEO Bob Iger (l) and Apple's CEO Tim Cook (center) enjoy a quiet discussion with Eddy Cue, Apple's SVP of Internet & services, about who knows what.
Source Bloomberg News
As a result, the new streamers have been consistently bleeding 100s of millions of dollars which has only been exacerbated by the joint strike for higher wages, benefits and more that can only impact their organizations' bottom line, further endangering their $10-50 million salaries.
Initial pain points such as increased pay, protections around the audition process, writing room size, pre-/post production TV series writing compensation, more favorable terms for pension and health contributions, on-camera rate for dancers' rehearsal days and redefinition/increases in residuals have been major issues for a large portion of the 180,000 individuals who want to make a decent living in the largely freelance industry.
Granted, it's a well-defined freelance industry but they still move from one movie/show project to another, always working to keep their work calendar filled.
During th
Most recent headlines
16/12/2025
Hawkins has landed on Spotify, just in time for Stranger Things Season 5, Volume...
16/12/2025
Wherever you are, your favorite music and audio content should go seamlessly with you. That's why Spotify has partnered with NAVER Corp, Korea's leading...
16/12/2025
2025 Wrapped arrived bigger and bolder than ever. This year's experience is designed to be ultra personal and shareable, with new features like Wrapped Part...
16/12/2025
Three 12-kilowatt Advanced Electric Propulsion System thrusters, supplied by L3Harris Technologies, form the core of Gateway's propulsion system. Pictured i...
16/12/2025
The challenge facing America's defense industrial base is not just about speed - its about rebuilding the foundation that makes speed possible. Our nations ...
16/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
16/12/2025
SEVILLE, Spain Canal Sur, the public broadcasting service for Andalusia, Spain, has completed a total technology refresh based on Pebble's resilient, softwa...
16/12/2025
NEW YORK Teleprompting hardware provider Telescript International has acquired all software code and intellectual property previously owned by Telescript West. ...
16/12/2025
As cable operators face increased competition from 5G fixed wireless access providers, a new report from Ookla Research finds that T-Mobile is the FWA speed lea...
16/12/2025
Apple has announced a major upgrade to the Apple TV app for device owners outside the Apple ecosystem with news that the Apple TV app for Android now supports G...
16/12/2025
Space42 grows Direct-to-Device partner ecosystem through a Memorandum of Underst...
16/12/2025
16 Dec 2025
VEON Announces Release Date for Full Year and Fourth Quarter 2025 R...
16/12/2025
16 Dec 2025
VEON's Kyivstar Invests in Renewable Energy in Ukraine with Acq...
16/12/2025
Back to All News
Emma Appleton, Fares Fares, Frida Gustavsson and Jakob Oftebro...
16/12/2025
Back to All News
Docu-reality My Korean Boyfriend Gets a Trailer and Premiere D...
16/12/2025
Harmonic's XOS Advanced Media Processor Improves Streaming Video Quality and Boosts Viewer Engagement SAN JOSE, Calif. - Dec. 16, 2025 - Harmonic (NASDAQ: ...
16/12/2025
RT Sport Awards 2025 live on RT One and RT Player at 8:05pm on Saturday 20 December.
On Saturday 20 December live on RT One and RT Player at the earlier t...
16/12/2025
Singer -songwriter Brian Kennedy has been announced as the final celebrity dance...
15/12/2025
Harlem Globetrotters Celebrate 100th Anniversary With New Brand Campaign From Th...
15/12/2025
Top L-R: La Tierra Del Valor (The Home of the Brave), Mangittatuarjuk (The Gnawe...
15/12/2025
L3Harris will leverage 15 years of experience supporting the E-4B Nightwatch and...
15/12/2025
CONWAY, Ark. In a notable example of how the loss of federal funding is forcing public stations to make massive cuts and operational changes, the statewide pub...
15/12/2025
BOULDER, Colo. Public Media Venture Group (PMVG), Venture Technologies Group (VTG), and WQED have completed a multipart agreement that they say will significant...
15/12/2025
Cape Town, November 13, 2025 - SES and International artist and humanitarian, Fo...
15/12/2025
Luxembourg, December 15, 2025 - SES, a leading space solutions company, and Abra Group launched fast and reliable multi-orbit inflight connectivity service on t...
15/12/2025
How Rivian s Design Puts Drivers First-And Why That Matters Published on Dec 15, 2025 Categories: Business Solutions
LinkedIn Corporate Communications
Sha...
15/12/2025
Space42 and Cobham Satcom completed the full range of advanced terminals for the...
15/12/2025
15 Dec 2025
VEON's Beeline Kazakhstan Delivers First Starlink Direct to Cel...
15/12/2025
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor finds himself the topic of year's cracker jokes
Oasis, David Harbour, Celebrity Traitors and Angela Rayner all feature in this y...
15/12/2025
Comscore Expands Cross-Platform Campaign Measurement to Include Audio and Social New capabilities strengthen cross-platform campaign reporting suite; CCR rebran...
15/12/2025
NVIDIA today announced it has acquired SchedMD - the leading developer of Slurm, an open-source workload management system for high-performance computing (HPC) ...
15/12/2025
RT .ie has reached one billion page views this year and is on track to finish 2025 2% ahead of last year. Average time spent on the site is up 3% on 2024, with ...
15/12/2025
Modern workflows showcase the endless possibilities of generative and agentic AI on PCs.
Of many, some examples include tuning a chatbot to handle product-supp...
13/12/2025
Powering Client Growth: Horizon Deepens Nielsen Partnership, Enabling More Effic...
13/12/2025
In a move that will help it offer more flexible and less costly programming options, YouTube TV has announced that it will be launching YouTube TV Plans with mo...
13/12/2025
SINGAPORE Magna Systems has designed, built and completed what is believed to be the first full UHD and IP-based OB truck in Southeast Asia for a Singapore medi...
12/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Everything You Need to Know for Next Week's Big Sho...
12/12/2025
Hailey Gates at the Atropia premiere (photo by George Pimentel / Shutterstock for Sundance Film Festival)...
12/12/2025
Last month, Spotify announced a new collaboration with the ATP Tour, the global governing body of men's professional tennis, aimed at bringing the next gene...
12/12/2025
CONWAY, Ark. In a notable example of how the elimination of Federal federal funding is forcing public stations to make massive cuts and changes in the way they...
12/12/2025
Wisycom and DPA Microphones announce the appointment of Ren Moerch as Group Product Director, Wireless, a strategic leadership role that will guide the combine...
12/12/2025
SMPTE , the home of media professionals, technologists, and engineers, in conjuncture with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the Entertainment Technolog...
12/12/2025
Keepit, the vendor-independent, cloud-native data protection provider, today announced a strategic go-to-market relationship in Poland with Ingram Micro, a lead...
12/12/2025
Atomos announced the immediate availability of a new firmware update for its Ninja TX GO and Ninja TX monitor-recorders, unlocking Open Gate 48P RAW recording w...
12/12/2025
Professional Wireless Systems (PWS) once again played a critical role in delivering flawless wireless coordination and support at the 2025 Latin Grammy Awards a...
12/12/2025
The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS), together with the Video Services Forum (VSF), the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) and the European Broadc...
12/12/2025
DHD audio will demonstrate the latest additions to its range of digital audio production solutions on Booth 321 in Hall B6 at Hamburg Open 2026. The show will b...
12/12/2025
Chaos today announces the release of V-Ray for Blender, update 2, bringing its award-winning rendering technology to even more Blender users by adding support f...
12/12/2025
Lighting specialist UltraLEDs has launched Precision LED Tape, a high-CRI lighting solution designed specifically for professional film, TV, and studio use.
P...
The shutdown has had a lot riding on it for everyone 
