The way scripted television gets made today has transformed the careers of writers.
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Thousands of television and film writers who are part of the Writers Guild of America are in the middle of a historic strike. They’re forming picket lines in front of studios, and productions in New York and Los Angeles and shutting down active sets. The last time they went on strike was 15 years ago — when streaming’s impact on the film and television industry was only just taking shape. This time around, they are striking for better residuals and rights against the looming threat of AI, among other concerns.
At the core of this dispute is streaming and how it’s revolutionized the industry. Companies like Netflix, Hulu, Apple TV+, and more have given consumers an unprecedented array of films and TV shows and opened the door to new voices that don’t have to adhere to mainstream network formats. On the other hand, streaming has also changed how television gets produced, the role writers play, and how they get paid. We interviewed four television writers and showrunners about how streaming has changed how they work, how their incomes have taken a hit, and why it has become harder than ever to build a career.
Further reading:
The New Yorker interviewed The Bear writer Alex O’Keefe that Julia Yorks mentions in the video: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/notes-on-hollywood/why-are-tv-writers-so-miserable
Alissa Wilkinson covered the WGA strike for Vox, including a part of it we don’t mention in this video: the threat of AI: https://www.vox.com/culture/23696617/writers-strike-wga-2023-explained-residuals-streaming-ai
There’s a great episode of The Daily about how streaming stunts career development for TV writers: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/05/podcasts/the-daily/tv-wga-writers-strike.html
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Disclosure: Vox Media’s editorial team is also unionized with the Writers Guild of America, East. But its members are not part of the strike covered in this video, nor are they part of the contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
i’m so sorry but all these people are sounding very entitled
It's only going to get worse with AI. The writers may need to adapt.
business has changed and writers don't want to adapt, am I understanding this?
This is why i support physical media
Yeaaaah this needs to be fixed. Snoop said it about music too. How someone have a million streams but not a million dollars…
I thought all the streamers would get together at some point and call it… CABLE?
Maybe we should all CANCEL our subscriptions since all the $$ goes to the top 10 Execs, then trickles down to Production….
We love streaming, you guys have to change with the times. Boo hoo
truth is market changed. not many industries are same as 25 years ago. adopt and survive. if you are talented person, find the way. youtuber, twicth… etc.
don't expect others to give you fair pay, go get it.
Do more streaming, we love it and utilise more AI, the world will be better,
It's not because of streaming, it's because the majority of Hollywood hired untalented ideologues to produce some of the worst writing in the history of entertainment
Nobody cares since Hollywood is WOKE!
Good I stopped watching TV and watch it when something is worth watching through rating and research … besides that there’s soooooo muchhhh garbage that I rather not even start and waste time.. unfortunately writers will loose this war there are too many of them and many will have to change their careers .. evolution
The writers and actors need to get what they’re entitled to. This is a clear injustice! How can the same studios who claim to not have enough money to pay the backbone of their industry then turn around and tell their shareholders that they’re raking in record-breaking profits. Both can’t be true…
the shorter number of episode model was taken from mini series and mostly from kdramas where viewers have short attention span. let's face it, as sad but it's true, no one wants to watch longer episodes now. after mad men and breaking bad, people have really strayed away from the usual network styled programming. but like i wrote from another video, taylor swift will save the movie and tv industry, specifically the writers guild.
I just had a security position for Fox Studios, it was great while it lasted. The shifts were getting so sparse that I had to leave that position. Didn't know it was trickling down to this.
Same work load but less and less pays!
Cancelling all streaming apps and picking books 📚….
Who cares about these people who are pushing woke ideology onto people?
They will start to outsource these writing jobs. This is what happened to IT industry for the last 25 years.
✊🏽 I stand with writers and actors.
Well tbh it sounds like there are too many shows, and too many writers to support the television structure that would make the writers that are left, livable mostly indefinitely reliable income if not one with upward momentum. So bottom line, even if an agreement is reached, a lot of writers will be out of work, and that unfortunately will be part of the best solution I can see. But where are the economists and statisticians? This is one for them
How bad writing, directing caused the strike. You're welcome
A lamplighter is a person employed to light and maintain candle or, later, gas street lights. Very few exist today as most gas street lighting has long been replaced by electric lamps. Change is inevitable and unstoppable, when a better, move efficient solution comes along your only rational choice is to adapt to the change or diminish into irrelevance. This rule applies to everyone.
It’s over ya’ll we are not going to need writers for the new world order
I lean pro-union and support the idea of increased share of the pie for writers, but I could be convinced there are too many shows and a market correction away from "500 shows a year" could be a good thing (leading to fewer overall writers in the future)
First, i don't think it's streaming. there are multiple factors. writers are one of the key components to a successful show, but by no means, the only one. it's important everyone be able to adapt as a landscape changes. greed by studios is a factor, greed by advertisers is a factor, how viewers consume is a factor, but it's not just streaming. using that as a single cause tells me more than what's not being said. 7 minutes in and im not completely sympathetic. what i'm hearing is we want what we had cuz that's what works. ummm, no. why can't writers adapt? things change, how we consume changes, but if a vertical is entrenched in "the way it used to be," while consumption changes, then the vertical has a choice, adapt or don't. had to rent a bowtie? you can tell a writer wrote that lame comment. cuz if the writer said he had to rent a tux, so what, many men, with money, rent tuxes. but renting the tie…. would have been more effective if the writer had to rent shoes. that writer should be canned
Wait, they only get residuals once on streaming services for a sale? In Music we get "residuals" as royalties based on a 3 way calculation based on how many times our music is being reproduced, over the amount of money collected a month by the streaming service monthly fee they charge users to access our intellectual property (to simplify). Writer should have a model similar to the music business, at the very least.
This is honestly just a great time for all American workers to fight back against greed and the class war
It is what it is. There's always A+ people working and under some C- talentless people.
Lol, they are now feeling what working class Americans have been feeling for decades. They now feel how those "bitter clingers" that they have looked down on have been dealing with. No symphathy.
Basically the industry now has full time workers for part time jobs. This is gonna be tough to settle given the possibility of offshoring writing jobs or using AI.
Cry me a river.