realcaseyrollinsAug 10, 2023

Writers Guild East Leader Says This 100-Day Strike Is Different: Studios More “Obstinate” Now

As picketers gathered in front of Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery locations, outgoing WGA East president Michael Winship said the AMPTP is different than in 2007-2008: "It's just gonna take a little while longer."

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/writers-100-days-new-york-strike-1235560072/

WGA East Leader Says This Strike Is Different: Studios Changed, Not Us

As picketers gathered in front of Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery locations, outgoing WGA East president Michael Winship said the AMPTP is different than in 2007-2008: "It's just gonna take a little while longer."

The Hollywood Reporter
Show threaddjmarconeAug 11, 2023
I don’t think the studios have any money.
Show threadStillPaisleyCatAug 11, 2023

Unfortunately, there’s increasing evidence that the streamers are saving cash and reducing net streaming losses by not producing new content, while not having to worry that their competitors are out producing them.

For AMPTP, this is a deus ex machina that gets its members out of the trap of dreadnaught-like extraordinarily expensive competition.

Eventually, they won’t be able to buy existing content to fill their schedules and subscribers may find other things to do without new content, but for the moment there are incentives for them to drag out the strike.

Show threaddjmarcone

I saw somewhere someone explaining that the massive cash flow from the “old” way of paying for content, namely high cable TV costs people used to have to pay for their 3 channels they actually watched - in addition to all the commercials the pay-tv people also had to watch, was a steady and reliable stream of cash that made its way to the content producers.

But since the big bundle pay-tv model is dead there is a huge drop in cash flow to content producers and this is making a massive change in normal operations inevitable.

That may be what’s happening now.

Aug 11, 2023 at 1:48pmWeb
Show threadStillPaisleyCatAug 11, 2023

I believe we’ve seen the same analysis.

The old cable model made Comcast the arbiter of an ecosystem, with streamers competing against one another, the model fell apart. It’s interesting that smaller players like Paramount and others are collaborating in some markets (e.g., SkyShowtime).