The WGA (Writers Guild of America) strike seems to be coming to an end now (it all seems to depend on a WGA meeting tomorrow), or who knows; once you read this it might be already over. But what kind of damage has it actually caused? Three months of strike don’t really go without consequence. We hear daily reports on how much money the movie industry has already lost this year.

I have to make clear that I support the writers (I’m trying to be one myself so I have to really), though I also understand the AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers). The main point of argument is the compensation for online content, so when they’ve made a TV show or movie and it’s also streamed on the internet. Of course the writers want to be paid for this but no one knows how the internet market will develop.

It’s a time where developments go really quickly, you can’t actually know how much money the internet content will make over the years. So it’s understandable that the studios were very hesitant, though pretty much paying them nothing at all is a bad idea when going into talks. At some times the strike got a bit silly though, there were some AMPTP and WGA mud slinging matches. (more…)