Members of the Writers Guild of America hit the picket line this morning, after failing to come to terms with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers.
At issue: how writers should be compensated when their work appears on new media platforms like the web. The guild, which represents about 12,000 writers, wants residual compensation, while the studios and networks argue that the online arena is still too new to establish any kind of payment formula.
Writers also ask that they be better compensated for content on DVD, looking to receive what amounts to about eight cents for each disc sold rather than the current four cents. Producers feel differently, arguing that the revenues are critical to moving projects out of deficit amid sharply rising costs.
It's unknown what effect the strike will have on the net (especially given viewers' appetites for user-generated content), but the last writers' strike in 1988 resulted in a 22-week work interruption that crippled the TV industry, the industry estimated to be the hardest hit this time around as well.
