Three years after the pandemic brought Hollywood to a standstill, the film and TV industry has again ground to a halt. This time, though, the industry is engaged in a bitter labor battle over how streaming has upended the economics of entertainment.
As striking actors and writers mobilized to mob studio lots and streamer headquarters, Puck’s Matthew Belloni wrote, “The town is burning to the ground.”
Though many of the demands of SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America are longstanding, much of the current dispute gathered force in the helter-skelter days of the pandemic. A digital land rush to streaming ensued, as studios, in many cases, hurried to craft their Netflix competitors. Subscriber growth became the top priority.
But streaming, especially when companies carefully guard audience numbers, offers no easy metric like box office or TV ratings to establish residuals — long a foundational part of how writers and actors make a living. SAG-AFTRA is seeking a small percentage of subscriber revenue, with data measured by a third party, Parrot Analytics.
At the same time, the drive to streaming has accelerated the demise of traditional television and its ad-based revenue. That’s led analysts like Michael Nathanson of MoffettNathanson to survey a fragmented entertainment business and forecast a “scary” second half of the year for media companies.
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