Avana Zenner
Staff Writer
On September 27, the nearly five-month strike led by television and movie writers officially ended as a result of a tentative agreement between the Writers Guild of America and studios and the AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers). The agreement called for protections against artificial intelligence on writers work, residual payments for shows on streaming platomorns, and staffing minimum writers rooms on TV shows. Since an agreement has been made, and the strike is over, writers will be allowed to return to work as early as Wednesday, October 4th. These new agreements are fair and should help create a better environment for writers in Hollywood, allowing TV to soon return to normal.
Every three years, the Writers Guild of America renegotiates their contracts with large entertainment companies. In March of 2023, negotiations regarding additional changes to be made to contracts began to surface. According to CNBC, the most pressing issues writers pushed to be included in the new contract included new terms around how featured film writers get paid, how many, and how long writers can be staffed on TV shows and the regulation of AI in creating new material. After negotiations were unsuccessful, the WGA called an official strike on May 2, 2023. As of September 27, the WGA finally reached an agreement with the AMPTP, according to the Guardian, some of the specifics of the new agreement include that only six to twelve writers casb be staffed on a show (depending on the number of episodes in a season). If this deal is ratified by the unions, it could end up helping the environment of sets incredibly, helping prevent the possibility of underpaying the writers based on overhiring.
Despite the strike officially coming to an end on September 27th, Hollywood will not immediately return back to normal. In order for production to officially continue, according to the Washington Post, a parallel strike by the union representing TV and movie actors must also be resolved.
Although streaming networks have proven to be easy access to many of consumers favorite TV shows and movies for consumers, big corporations like Netflix and Hulu are at the center of the writer’s problems. According to the Washington Post, the dispute of how much money a writer should be compensated for their work has been shown to be increasingly more complicated, turning the business model of Hollywood on its head. Historically, writers have been paid a fixed amount per the work they produced on specific projects. However, according to Christine Becker, a professor at the University of Notre Dame’s film theater, each contract a writer is presented with can look different, mainly because of the differences in a production’s length and budget. Although, according to CNBC, the WGA contracts guarantee minimum payments, the pay a writer actually receives can be much less; specifically, pay cuts can reach almost 25%. The new agreement is even more important based on the constant demand for new content by consumers, as a result of the writers strike, the film industry has been put on hold for nearly five months, leading the ending of the strike to be crucial to writers, watchers and streaming corporations.
Another main debate that has risen through the course of the writer’s strike is the complex issue of residuals. Residual payments can go on for years, as they are long-term payments negotiated by unions for reruns and other airings after the initial release of a movie or TV show (ABC News). However, since many shows and movies are now watched directly on streaming sites rather than DVD or cable. Writers are now unjustly receiving smaller residual payments. According to Variety Magazine, the new deal ensures that writers will secure a “success-based bonus” made for streaming Tv programs and movies. The new formula will pay writers a bonus if their shows are broadcasted on streaming sites such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu or Max. According to Variety, for streaming titles that are viewed by 20% or more of the service’s domestic subscribers in the first 90 days of release, writers will receive a bonus ranging from $9,000 to $16,000. Since the issue of residuals has been at the heart of the writers strike from the beginning, this agreement seems to be fair. However, this “bonus based pay” does not apply for older shows, for example the USA network drama “Suits” that has recently been extremely popular on Netflix, will not qualify for the increased residuals, begging the question of how this is fair for all writers, if not everyone benefits from it.
As specifics of the WGA’s deal continue to surface, the implications of Artificial Intelligence and its effect on writers have become a main argument of the strike. According to Ryan Ragughnder at the Los Angeles Times, since technology is developing rapidly, the WGA did not want to incorporate language regarding AI into a contract that could later backfire. However, the WGA did include some concessions from streamers and studios, acknowledging that AI can not be considered literary material written by a human, and studios will not be able to require writers to utilize platforms like “ChatGPT” when writing. As technology continues to change before society’s eyes, the inclusion of an acknowledgment of artificial intelligence’s dangers was an important choice.
The most recent contract for the WGA (Writer’s Guild of America) ended at the onset of AI, and that, coupled with very aggressive demands by the union leaders, put the studios and streamers in a position where they felt they had to push back to protect their business interests as AI and other technological advances develop.
Although AI has proved to be a threat to the integrity of the writer’s hard work, some may argue that consumers in 2023 would prefer to have fast, easy access to shows on streaming sites. The reason that is possible, and movies can be extremely advanced and produced somewhat quickly is because studios embrace technology. The AMPTP is in the business of making money and providing the best possible product at the lowest possible cost. Studios and streamers are publicly traded companies with investors that demand dividends. Artificial Intelligence is a technology that is going to change the world, and the early indications are that as the technology continues to improve, it will be able to assist in script writing, at the very least, and possibly even write entire screenplays and television show scripts. However, writers are a crucial part of the screenwriting process, and without them television and movies would lack human touch, even if an AI platform could create scripts faster. It was a crucial step to include protections against AI in the writer’s deal, because without it big corporations would embrace technology at the expense of the writers.
As viewers continue to watch and rewatch their favorite shows, it is essential consideration of the importance of compensation for the individuals who make it possible. Writers deserve fair compensation, working conditions, and respect for the productions they are closely involved in. Thanks to the new deal created by the WGA, writers will now be able to return to work with a contract that is fair, will support them and help bring equality to TV and movie production.
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