In the absence of an agreement, thousands of American television and film screenwriters are on strike on Tuesday, after the failure of negotiations with the main studios and platforms relating in particular to an increase in their remuneration.
This social movement will result in the immediate interruption of hit shows, such as late-night shows, and major delays for TV series and films scheduled for release this year. .
“We have not reached an agreement with the studios and the broadcasters. We will be on strike after the contract expires at midnight” Monday (3 a.m. Tuesday in Quebec), the powerful writers’ union, the Writers Guild of America (WGA), said in an email to its members and obtained by AFP.
The studios’ responses to the requests have been “wholly inadequate, given the existential crisis the screenwriters face,” the WGA said.
During the night, screenwriters relayed the call for a strike on social networks.
“Drop your pens! urged Caroline Renard, screenwriter of several series and television programs, on Twitter.
” It’s frightening. But a future in which we accept what corporations are trying to do […] is even more so, ”also commented actress and screenwriter Ashley Nicole Black on the social network. “The writers generate far too much value to accept that. »
By late Monday, major studios and platforms, including Disney and Netflix, represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), announced that talks with the WGA ” were concluded without an agreement”.
The last major social movement in Hollywood dates back to the scriptwriters’ strike which paralyzed the American audiovisual industry in 2007-2008. A 100-day conflict that had cost the sector two billion dollars.
This strike could have disastrous consequences for the American entertainment industry.
Minimum wage for video on demand
Screenwriters are demanding an increase in their remuneration, minimum guarantees to benefit from a stable job and a greater share of the profits generated by the rise of video on demand (streaming).
For their part, studios say they have to cut costs due to economic pressures.
Screenwriters say they are struggling to make a living from their craft, with salaries stagnating or even falling due to inflation, while their employers are making profits and increasing the salaries of their executives.
They believe that they have never been so numerous to work at the minimum wage set by the unions, while the television networks hire fewer people to write increasingly short series.
The WGA accuses the studios of seeking to create a ” gig economy “, the economy of gigs, in which the work of screenwriter would be “a profession entirely freelance “.
The AMPTP claimed to have presented a “comprehensive proposal” including an increase in the remuneration of the screenwriters, but said “it was not prepared to improve this offer given the magnitude of the other demands”.
One of the main points of disagreement.
High pressure
There is also contention over how screenwriters are paid for streaming series, which often remain viewable on platforms like Netflix for years after being written.
For decades, screenwriters have collected “residual rights” for the reuse of their works, for example in television reruns or DVD sales.
It is either a percentage of the revenue earned by the studios for the film or show, or a fixed sum paid for each rerun of an episode.
With video on demand, the authors receive a fixed amount each year, even in the event of worldwide success of their work as for the series Bridgerton Or Stranger Thingsviewed by hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide.
The WGA is calling for the revaluation of these amounts, which are today “far too low in view of the massive international reuse” of these programs. She also wants to discuss the future impact of artificial intelligence on the screenwriting profession.
The studios point out that the “residual rights” paid to screenwriters reached a record level of $494 million in 2021, against $333 million ten years earlier, largely thanks to the explosion in screenwriter jobs linked to the rising demand for streaming.
Having been spendthrift in recent years, when rival broadcasters have sought to boost subscriber numbers at all costs, the bosses say they are now under heavy pressure from investors to cut spending and make a profit.
And they deny pretexting economic difficulties to strengthen their position in negotiations with screenwriters.
“Do you think Disney would lay off 7,000 people just for fun? said a source close to the AMPTP. According to her, “there is only one platform that is profitable at the moment, and that is Netflix”. The film industry “is also a very competitive sector”.