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UPDATE: Members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) officially  on Tuesday, May 2, at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Standard Time, when their union contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) expired.  were the first to come to a halt, and other serials are expected to have shortened seasons as a result. WGA鈥檚 negotiating committee released a  on May Day saying, 鈥淭he companies have broken this business. They have taken so much from the very people, the writers, who have made them wealthy.鈥� 

Television has been experiencing a boom in the United States, the likes of which has never been seen before. Just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, there were  that were broadcast or streamed the year before鈥攁n all-time high. In 2022, there were . In fact, according to FX Network Research, since 2012 there has been a  in the number of scripted shows, except for a small dip due to the lockdown-related production halt in 2020.

These new heights in television production can be attributed largely to streaming services such as 鈥攁 company that has been offering tantalizing on-screen fiction for the past decade, since House of Cards first debuted as an exclusively streaming show on the platform. But the primacy of streaming is also the  why TV writers are now threatening to go on strike. For years, streaming services have slashed residual payments, which writers rely on, prompting the  to vote to strike.

The turnout for the WGA vote strike, which took place on April 17, broke records, with nearly 80% of the union鈥檚 members casting ballots. Of that number, nearly 98% voted to strike. These numbers are , the last time WGA members voted to strike and actually carried out their threat (). The union, which represents more than 11,000 writers, has the potential to bring the TV industry to a  if negotiations with media companies, represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), break down by May 1, the last day of WGA鈥檚 current contract.

Three major unions dominate Hollywood鈥檚 television industry, representing writers, directors, and actors: the WGA, the  (DGA), and the , respectively. Both  and  will also start negotiations shortly with the AMPTP, ahead of their contracts ending on June 30. There is potential for multiple overlapping strikes in the coming months, leaving Hollywood鈥檚 television industry on edge, even as most of the nation enjoys the fruits of its work, blissfully unaware of the tensions brewing between creators and corporate producers.

The stakes are high. Already  is boasting that it can rely on foreign labor to weather a potential WGA strike. The company鈥檚 co-CEO Ted Sarandos said a day after the strike authorization vote that if writers went on strike, Netflix had 鈥渁 large base of upcoming shows and films from around the world,鈥� adding, 鈥淲e could probably serve our members better than most.鈥� Networks are also  in preparation for a potential writers鈥� strike.

TV producers hold massive financial power in an industry whose cultural influence sweeps across the world. While writers, directors, and actors are the ones whose creativity powers the direction of new, innovative content, their bosses鈥攅xecutives at Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, and Disney鈥攈ave driven down the costs of labor to maximize profits.

Residuals, which are extra payments made to creative workers each time their shows re-air, used to provide stable incomes for TV workers in between jobs. Streaming services negotiated  years ago when they were minor players within the TV landscape. Now, although they dominate the scene, streaming producers are continuing to pay their workers insultingly low residuals. Worse, many creators are finding that platforms will  in order to get a tax write-off and avoid having to pay them.

TV producers are also cutting costs by canceling shows abruptly鈥攁 move that could disproportionately impact diversity on-screen. Television is one of the world鈥檚 most powerful narrative-setting industries, influencing culture in ways that can determine day-to-day policies. According to , 鈥淔or many Americans, it was television shows that gave them their first images of same-sex couples, and a chance to recognize the commonalities with their own lives.鈥� This in turn helped lay the foundation for the legalization of same-sex marriage within years.

Television has the potential to do the same for racial justice issues. According to the latest , 鈥減eople of color have made tremendous advances among broadcast, cable, and digital leads in recent years,鈥� and 鈥淏lack and multiracial persons exceeded proportionate representation among leads in 2020鈥�21 for cable and digital scripted shows.鈥� Still, the report concludes that there is not enough parity overall.

Now, in search of profits, TV producers are cutting costs by canceling already greenlighted projects. 鈥淸T]he streaming explosion has lost steam,鈥� declared . TV networks and streaming platforms ordered  in the second half of last year compared to the year before. John Landgraf, chairman of FX Networks, who is credited with coining the term 鈥淧eak TV,鈥�  that cost cutting will impact the representation of racially diverse communities.

It appears as though, in addition to using foreign-sourced projects and stockpiling scripts as leverage, TV鈥檚 corporate executives plan to approach union negotiations by touting the notion that television output is peaking, and therefore costs such as baseline pay and residuals cannot be increased.

Yet media companies have enough money to buy one another, spending billions on mergers and acquisitions. A year ago,  for $8.5 billion; and Warner Brothers, which owned HBO Max,  to the tune of $43 billion. Earlier this year, Showtime announced a  with Paramount+. Predictably, these companies are announcing  to their workforce to pay for such consolidations.

But workers still have leverage. David Slack, a WGA union member and a writer and consulting producer on Magnum P.I., told the , 鈥淭he power to withhold our labor is the only tool we have to get the studios to pay us what鈥檚 fair.鈥� He added, 鈥淥ur products are the foundation for all the billions of dollars of revenue that these entertainment companies generate, and we need to be compensated for that.鈥� Los Angeles Times columnist  distilled the dynamic succinctly: 鈥淚f studios and platforms want to be in the original scripted content business, they need to make that business work for the people writing those scripts. It鈥檚 that simple.鈥�

The , it lasted a whopping 100 days and cost the economy of Los Angeles more than $2 billion. If writers go on a prolonged strike, there will be a ripple effect, putting actors and directors out of work as well. There can be no scripted television if no one is writing the scripts.

This article was produced by , a project of the Independent Media Institute.Categories