Hollywood in trouble: writers threaten a new strike

The Alliance of Film and Television Producers (AMPTP) announced that it will start negotiate with the WGA to then continue with the Directors and Actors unions, whose contracts expire on June 30. “The AMPTP is committed to achieving fair and reasonable treatment that strengthens and gives stability to the industry”they commented in a statement.

WGA has as purpose increase basic wages, improve earnings from views of streaming content and reject the bailout of the scriptwriters rooms. Most unions want focus on “the existential problem” of the turn to streamingwhen most of the income of the scriptwriters depends on the profits from the retransmissions on television. The union is expected to file a “demand expungement” soon, with some specifications of what they expect in the next contract.

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In a context of major restructurings (like in Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery) and possible economic recessiona veteran television writer told The Hollywood Reporter: “It’s a rare moment where We’re going to have to test our ability to get the things we need.”. Both he and other union representatives state that for them the chances of a strike are low but it all depends on what the producers offer when negotiations start.

For his part, executives don’t feel as confident. The producers commented in December that the opening of writers’ tables for new productions began at an unusual timein search of have productions written in advance if a strike were to happen. In the same medium, a senior television executive expressed that he is sure that the strike is going to happen but that the impact may not be felt until the end of the year.