Writer's Strike
Here is a interesting twist. NBC dropped their deal with iTunes because they "only" made 15 Million from it last year. They instead are opting to create their own delivery site because they believe they can make more money that way. Everything is pointing to more revenue from delivery online, and from media like season packs for DVD's. Last time there was a strike (1998) the writers struck a bad deal and get a minimal amount of money for DVD sales, and they are looking to get that revenue deal to be more inline with what they get from broadcast revenue. Along with that they are pushing for some portion of the revenue from online as well. Go figure, if that is where things move and broadcast looks like it will be bringing in less revenue in coming years this only makes sense. But here is the catch of it all, they are asking for a percentage. Not a flat amount. So no matter whether the studios make a little or a lot from either of these revenue streams they are simply asking for "fair" (some may argue what is fair, but that is another debate) share of the profits from their work.
Here is a article giving some more background on this:
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20159387,00.html
Now I seem to recall a couple years ago (and some even recently) these anti-piracy adds that were being run pointing out how copying hurts the people that make the shows... but if the people that make the shows don't make anything off of the dvd sale, or the download, then they loose a lot of their moral high ground as I see it. If the only real revenue steam for the creators is the tv broadcast, then the only people that really have a impact on this are the people that are involved with the Nielson Ratings. Which are by all accounts laughable substitutions for statistics.
Anyhow, for those of you who may want to make your view in support of the writer's stance heard,
here is a petition in support of the Writer's Guild:
http://www.petitiononline.com/WGA/petition.html
Here is a article giving some more background on this:
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20159387,00.html
Now I seem to recall a couple years ago (and some even recently) these anti-piracy adds that were being run pointing out how copying hurts the people that make the shows... but if the people that make the shows don't make anything off of the dvd sale, or the download, then they loose a lot of their moral high ground as I see it. If the only real revenue steam for the creators is the tv broadcast, then the only people that really have a impact on this are the people that are involved with the Nielson Ratings. Which are by all accounts laughable substitutions for statistics.
Anyhow, for those of you who may want to make your view in support of the writer's stance heard,
here is a petition in support of the Writer's Guild:
http://www.petitiononline.com/WGA/petition.html