How Could Impending Writer’s Strike Impact Your Favorite Streaming Service? Here’s Everything You Need to Know
The contract between the Writers Guild of America and major Hollywood studios expires on Monday, May 1. That means that, barring any last-second breakthroughs between the two sides, the thousands of Hollywood writers who are part of the union will strike beginning on May 2, the union’s first work stoppage since 2008.
Cord cutters who primarily get their entertainment through subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services like Prime Video and HBO Max are understandably concerned that such a strike could imperil the next season of their favorite show. Those worries are certainly justified, considering how many strike-shortened seasons of TV were released 15 years ago, after the conclusion of the last contract dispute between writers and studios.
Will All Shows Stop Airing When Writers Go on Strike?
Luckily for these audiences, their favorite streaming brands will likely not see many changes from a writer’s strike, at least not initially. Streaming services are less seasonal than traditional broadcast TV companies, and therefore have new seasons of shows ready to go throughout the year. This has also allowed them to begin to bank more seasons and episodes ahead of the long-anticipated strike.
“We have a large base of upcoming shows and films from around the world,” Netflix co-Chief Executive Ted Sarandos during the company’s most recent earnings call. Streamers don’t have any reason to panic for now; they can pull in content from around the world where writers aren’t governed by the WGA to fill any programming gaps that may appear from a prolonged strike. And, in the short-term, they’ve got content already filmed, produced, and ready to go.
What Types of Shows Will and Won’t Be Impacted by a Writers Strike?
Fans of late-night talk shows, on the other hand, will likely be some of the first to see the effects of a writer’s strike. That is because these shows air nightly, and rely so much on relevant topics from the day’s news, there is basically no way to produce them without writers working on them every day. Programs like “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and “Real Time With Bill Maher” could go dark entirely for the duration of the strike.
Depending on how long a strike goes on, the fall TV schedule could also be affected by a walkout of writers. Spring and summer are when writers first begin to gather to block out new seasons of TV shows that will begin airing in the fall. An extended writers’ strike could lead to shortened seasons of broadcast TV series, much like it did in 2008.
Animation and reality TV writers are not covered by the WGA, and are thus far not participants in the planned strike. They could walk out in solidarity, however, and if they do there could be fewer new reality and animated TV episodes released. So far, the Screen Actors Guild- American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), the Directors Guild of America (DGA), and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) have expressed support for the WGA, though SAG-AFTRA has advised its guild members to continue working for the time being.
These sibling unions could decide to join the strike when one officially begins, or even further down the line, but as of now, that is not the case.
What Do Writers Want from Studios in the Upcoming Strike?
Traditional issues like pay increases will be at the center of the dispute, but transparency will also be of paramount importance to the Writers Guild. However, reporting from Puck News indicates that writers are also hoping their new contract with studios will give them more information about who is engaging with shows on streaming platforms, and how often. This will give writers more leverage, especially when negotiating rates for residual checks earned from repeat viewings of past episodes. In an age where streaming has dramatically changed the availability of on-demand video, this is a critically important piece of the negotiations for writers.
When the WGA completed its last contract with studios, streaming was still in its infancy. Hulu was a nascent startup, and the best way to see movies digitally was to purchase them for $20-$30 each on iTunes and watch them on a video iPod. The metrics that guide how Hollywood writers are paid have essentially not changed at all in that time, despite the vast differences between entertainment then and entertainment in 2023. That’s the crux of the problem for writers, while content providers are now facing pressure from Wall Street to show profits instead of big subscriber numbers. That schism could mean this writers’ strike is a long way from ending.
What Do Studios Want from Writers in the Upcoming Strike?
To start with, studios want a little more understanding from writers. They are faced with starkly different revenue models than they saw when pay TV was at its height, and some of them will never make the same amount of money they brought in when cable and satellite ruled the home entertainment landscape.
In response to the economics of streaming, many of the largest media outlets have had to resort to layoffs and other cost-cutting measures over the past year. Studios are also creating more content than ever before, so they have to find a balance between paying writers what they are worth and limiting the ever-growing losses on the streaming side of their businesses.
In the end, a compromise between studios and writers is inevitable. The work stoppage is not permanent; the strike will end eventually. All that remains to be seen is how long it will last, and how many casualties it will produce.
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