Hollywood faces writers’ strike after talks with studios collapse

Union says offer is ‘wholly insufficient’ and complains of gig economy conditions

Hollywood faces its first strike in 15 years after contract talks between screenwriters and movie studios collapsed on Monday.

The 11,500-member Writers Guild of America voted to strike following six weeks of talks. In a statement, the WGA said the studios’ offer was “wholly insufficient given the existential crisis” brought about by the new economics of the streaming era. The writers said they would begin picketing on Tuesday.

The last time writers went on strike was in 2007. Hollywood was brought to a standstill for 100 days, costing the California economy an estimated $2bn.

Writers argue it is more difficult to make a living in the streaming era. Under the traditional US network TV model, writers produced about 22 scripts per season and were eligible to earn royalties on their shows. However, streaming series are much shorter, often eight to 10 episodes, and opportunities to earn residuals are scarce.

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Studios have also reduced the number of writers on shows in some cases. The writers’ union said studios’ use of “mini-rooms” — small groups that quickly produce scripts for prospective shows — had created a “gig economy inside a union workforce”. It accused the studios of opening the door to “writing as an entirely freelance profession”.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the industry, said it had delivered a “comprehensive proposal” that included “generous increases in compensation for writers as well as improvements in streaming residuals”. The group said it was prepared to improve its offer but stopped due to writers’ demands for “mandatory staffing” and other proposals.

The impact of a strike would fall first on live television programming, including late-night chat shows, followed by streaming productions. Theatrical films, which have longer lead times, would be the last to be affected.

Ted Sarandos, co-chief executive of Netflix, told investors last month that the company was working “work really hard to make sure we could find a fair and equitable deal so we can avoid” a strike.

But he added that the company’s reservoir of international programming would insulate it from some of the impact.

“If there is [a strike], we have a large base of upcoming shows and films from around the world [so] that we could probably serve our members better than most,” he said. “We do have a pretty robust slate of releases to take us in to a long time.” - Financial Times