Now for an update on a story that we've been
following since it started at the beginning of the week
. That's the Hollywood writers' strike continuing with no agreement
yet in place. So I do want to bring
in news, senior reporter Michelle Castillo to see where
we're at now and what we're expecting to happen.
Given that many broadcast cable and digital media companies are
pitching their new programs to advertisers at this year's upfronts
and new fronts, Michelle, what do we know
? So, hey Kristen, as we all know
, the Writers Guild of America is currently on strike
and above all writers are looking for higher pay,
especially with all the changes in the streaming landscape.
So today writers are fighting for increased wages to balance
out the that were brought on by sudden increases in
streaming platforms rather than traditional linear programming. So it
used to be that writers on shows could receive residual
checks when their episodes were aired. So they were
essentially paid every time someone watched their writing. However
, streamers don't usually share how many times episodes are
rewatched. So I spoke with W G A E
council member and strike captain Caitlin Fontana who explained the
differences when streaming came along, that kind of threw
everything for a loop. So um streamers don't often
share who's watching and many shows are made just for
streaming. So, you know, your, your
favorite episodes of shows like uh stranger things just live
on Netflix. And you can watch those episodes over
and over and over again, which is wonderful.
But every time you watch a show like that,
the writer who created that show should get a piece
of it. And the, the long and the
short of it is in the streaming era, that
is a very uneven process. Right now, we've
entered a period of time known as the new front
and upfronts. These are presentations, digital media,
broadcast and cable companies give to advertisers to preview their
upcoming programming. This past week, everyone from Amazon
to snap to Tik Tok to meta announced what's to
come and many digital ad executives, as so many
digital media executives and ad buyers were um who I
spoke to said they're not as concerned about the strikes
because they've quote stockpiled content because they were worried that
these pauses were gonna happen. See, while writers
rooms should have started this week for traditional networks to
begin working on fall programming. Most streamers actually buys
as what they call a full order, meaning that
everything is completely shot and written by the time the
first episode debuts on the service. So in the
case of a strike, this gives the streamers more
time before they'll run out of content. On top
of that, streamers have been looking internationally for shows
that they can bring on their service, which is
something that traditional networks can't do. But Fontana points
out stockpiling wasn't really fair for writers, take a
listen, but I do know in terms of how
they are so, you know, quote unquote stockpiling
series for, um, the event of a strike
like this or, you know, depending on how
long the strike would last. Certainly, that's a
concern for us. Um It is not fair to
those writers who had to, you know, work
their butts off getting episodes ready for an eventuality like
this. Um They're gonna be out there on the
picket lines walking when the potentiality of their episode airing
is a real thing. And Kristen from what I'm
hearing, these strikes aren't going to be over any
time soon, especially with the director's Guild and the
screen Actors Guild set to negotiate their contracts as well
. All right, very important story. Michelle Castillo
. Thank you. Of course, we'll have all
eyes on these strikes as everything unfolds. That was
Michelle Castillo live for us in the studio.