Strike Watch: Showdown at the Bargaining Table; Showtime at CBS
Keeping the posts brief for now due to numerous year-end deadlines, but a couple interesting strike tidbits this morning. First (this via TV Decoder at the NY Times), someone at the AP with a better eye for numbers than mine has assessed the studios' latest proposal and the writers' counterproposal and concluded that the two sides are only $21 million apart as they continue to bargain.
Current mood: Mildly optimistic. That sounds like a small difference, but the WGA has already said that the offers are farther apart by its own reckoning. And as the AP notes, the bigger issue is not how much the difference is, but where it is: in the amount writers are compensated for Internet work. The real issue is not how many millions the deal adds up to today, but how many more millions, or billions, it amounts to in the future once the Internet is a far greater source of revenue. Still, at least both sides are talking, and--more important--sounding a lot more civil.
And if the strike isn't settled? Says the Hollywood Reporter, look for Dexter to move--in edited form--to CBS. The big winner of the strike may end up being not the studios or the writers, but CBS's sister network in Viacom, Showtime. Not only would Dexter be a vast improvement on CBS's current set of dramas (strike or none), considering that CBS is already known for its often-gory crime procedurals, this is one broadcast network where Dexter could really make a killing.
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1
I'd watch one episode to see what they cut out. Mostly though I won't watch TV once there are no new episodes.
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2
I won't watch anything CBS uses to put the writers in a situation where they have to strike longer. And I miss my TV! Finish this up!
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3
The $21 million difference comes from subtracting the AMPTP's publicly-stated $130 million offer from the WGA's $151 million proposal. The problem is, while the WGA has broken out the cost of its deal in great detail (an increase of $5 million/year for made-for-pay TV residuals, an increase of $600,000/year for payments daytime serial writers, and so forth), nobody has any idea how the AMPTP arrived at its figure, and from the scant numbers it's released publicly, it simply doesn't add up to $130 mil. So while it may look like it's just a $21 million difference, the AMPTP (as best anyone can tell) is actually offering far, far less than what it says it is, so the difference is probably a good deal larger.
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4
As a stockholder in CBS; I just sent Leslie Moonvies a less than friendly letter informing him that his company's stock has dropped 12%+ since the strike started. And that Wall Street will continue to punish the stock for the forseeable future unless this strike gets settled. I also informed him that I will be his worst shareholder nightmare if his company is the last to settle.
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