Hollywood writers and production studios were reportedly engaged in last-minute talks on Monday to avoid the industry’s first writers’ strike in 15 years.
The Writers Guild of America (WGA), which represents thousands of television and movie writers, could call for a strike as early as Tuesday if a deal with major studios is not reached by midnight on Monday — the day the guild’s three-year contract expires.
A strike would cause a production shutdown and affect the biggest companies in Hollywood as scripted series across both network television and streaming grind to a halt.
The WGA has been negotiating with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which bargains on behalf of the studios. The talks have centered on pay concerns brought on by the streaming boom, in addition to other fundamental changes within entertainment like the recent wave of cost-cutting that has prompted media giants from Disney (DIS) to Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) to enact mass layoffs and shelve multiple projects.
Yahoo Finance reached out to both the WGA and the AMPTP for comment but did not immediately hear back.
Writer’s strike ‘would really be a miserable thing’
What’s different today versus prior years is just how much the streaming boom has changed the industry.
Streaming shows often have fewer episodes and less residual income compared to traditional network television, which means less money in the pockets of these writers.
At the same time, the majority of these studios are no longer just “pure play” production houses. Rather, they have their own streaming divisions, which have brought on a new set of challenges as direct-to-consumer losses mount.
“Whether this is a blip on the radar or a prolonged strike like in 2007 remains to be seen,” Scott Purdy, U.S. media industry leader at KPMG, told Yahoo Finance. “In the near-term though, consumers should prepare for some of their favorite TV shows to be delayed and to potentially enter a period where there’s a limited amount of new content to watch. We’ll be watching to see how this impacts subscription decisions with inflation-pinched consumers who were already reassessing their spending habits.”
Late night television shows would be the first to feel the impact. Seth Meyers, who hosts NBC’s “Late Night” show, said over the weekend, “If a writers’ strike happens that would shut down production on a great many shows.”
“It doesn’t just affect the writers, it affects all the incredible non-writing staff on these shows. And it would really be a miserable thing for people to have to go through, especially considering we’re on the heels of that awful pandemic that affected, not just show business, but all of us.”
“What the writers are asking for is not unreasonable,” he continued. “If you don’t see me here next week, know that is something that is not done lightly.”
Studio executives have said they have enough scripted content banked to prevent disruptions to the content pipeline, but they’d still prefer to avoid a strike.
“Just to be clear — we’re at the table,” Netflix (NFLX) co-CEO Ted Sarandos said during the company’s quarterly earnings call last month.
“We don’t want [a] strike. The last time there was a strike, it was devastating to creators. It was really hard on the industry. It was painful for local economies that support production, and it was very, very, very bad for fans,” Sarandos said. “If there’s a strike, we want to work really hard to make sure we can find a fair and equitable deal so we can avoid one. But if there is one, we have a large base of upcoming shows and films from around the world, so we could probably serve our members better than most.”
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav echoed similar sentiments during the company’s Max streaming launch presentation last month, telling reporters, “We’re assuming the worst from a business perspective. We’ve got ourselves ready. We’ve had a lot of content that’s been produced and we are launching a product on May 23. So, we are ready to go guns blazing in terms of our product and our platforms around the world.”
The box office should also be safe, according to industry executives: “For films coming out this year, the strike really doesn’t have an impact,” IMAX (IMAX) CEO Richard Gelfond told Yahoo Finance Live on Monday. “It’s a question of how long it goes on for and what happens next year.”
Nevertheless, a writers’ strike would have serious economic implications, as the last strike demonstrated.
According to estimates from the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., that strike, which lasted 100 days from November 2007 to February 2008, cost the Los Angeles County economy a whopping $2.5 billion.
“I don’t think you want a writers’ strike,” Citi Managing Director Jason Bazinet previously told Yahoo Finance Live. “At the end of the day, the Street doesn’t like uncertainty that comes with a strike.”
“It’s going to just inject more noise as the cadence of new content slows down. …Generally, the Street doesn’t like strikes,” he warned.
Alexandra Canal is a Senior Reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @alliecanal8193 and email her at [email protected]
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