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HOW COSTLY IS STRIKE TO WRITERS?
Wednesday, December 12 2007
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The Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers has posted a counter on its website indicating that the strike has thus far cost writers $104.56 million. The figure is based on the writers' own estimate of overall compensation in 2006 of $1.05 billion. The counter is apparently aimed at validating critics of the strike who have argued that it is likely to cost writers more than they can ever hope to gain even if their demands are met. (The WGA claims that its proposals for new media will cost the studios $151 million over the next three years.) Meanwhile, today's (Wednesday) Los Angeles Times reported that dissension has arisen in the writers' ranks among members who are unhappy that the negotiations were sidetracked by "secondary" issues, including the WGA negotiators' demands for jurisdiction over reality show producers and the writers of animated series. Negotiators for the writers, however, claim that the talks did not break up over those issues and that the studios claim that they did was, in the words of one WGA leader, "a ploy by the AMPTP ... to divide us."
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