WGA Source Speaks Out

WGA source speaks out


By Mark London Williams Nov 7, 2007, 14:53 GMT

"The producers made this inevitable," M&C's WGA source told me. Said Source works mostly in "longform television," is also an accomplished novelist, and is currently a Strike Captain as well. "They've taken such an intractable position," the source continued, "but I have my suspicions they have their reasons for that."

Among those reasons, wanting to dump as much of a non-starter "new" TV season as they can, as well as some of the pricier "development" deals – in both features and television – they may have been saddled with.

Said Source is especially mystified that the studios – which is to say, the corporations that own them – aren't budging, since the "Guild had taken the DVD increase off the table."

As is being reported, the WGA apparently took that demand off the table during Sunday's last-ditch talk – a doubling of the DVD residual rate from 4 cents to 8 cents per disc (!) -- with an understanding the owners would begin to talk turkey about what our Source notes is "the real sticking point – new media."

"When the guild took the DVD formula off the table, the AMPTP was expected to counter," Source noted. But they didn't, in any meaningful way, and the writers apparently saw no reason to tell the East Coast faction to "stay indoors" when the midnight deadline – a mere nine o'clock, for Pacific Coasters – rolled around.

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