Academic

The Writers' Strike Over?

By Gordon Smith, Christine, Hurt, Vic Fleischer, Fred Tung, Lisa Fairfax, David Zaring

Not quite, but close. According to the NYT, one issue remains unresolved:

A final sticking point had been compensation for ad-supported television programs that are streamed over the Internet after their initial broadcast. Companies were seeking a period during which they could stream such shows without paying a residual, and wanted to peg payments for a year of streaming at the $1,200 level established in the directors' contract. Writers were seeking 1.2 percent of the distributors' revenue from such streams, to ensure they would participate in any revenue gold mine discovered on the Web. How that issue was finally resolved in the informal talks remained unclear.

I am not sure whether streaming is a revenue gold mine, but I know that it has changed my viewing habits. I rarely sit in front of a television, but most evenings, after my children are in bed, I am in front of my home office computer, which is connected to cable television and the internet. This is my time to catch up on the day's email and blog reading, and I sometimes multi-task by playing an old episode of Chuck or Pushing Daisies.

Both shows are out of fresh content. So settle that strike, and give the writers their due.

Full post as published by Conglomerate on February 02, 2008 (boomark / email).