COMMENTARY: Could the Hollywood Writers Strike Spur New Media?
Issue: The Hollywood writers strike may have unintended consequences
Commentary by: David Vinjamuri
This morning at 12:01 am, Hollywood writers went on strike for the first time since 1988. Most of the commentary around this strike has been focused on the earlier writers strike and its estimated $500mm cost to the industry. Media critics and stock analysts are wondering how great the revenue loss to the industry will be and what burdens any eventual deal with the writers will place on the industry.
Instead of looking to the 1988 writers strike for historical lessons, pundits should reach a year further back, to the 1987 NFL strike. In that strike, professional football players were replaced by scabs - mostly undrafted former college players willing to cross a picket line to be able to wear the uniform of an NFL team for a few weeks. Although the interval was short - after a few games, pros began crossing the picket line and the season was not lost - those few weeks were interesting. Fans saw a lower level of football, but also a lot of people playing for nothing more than passion. Although most of the scabs disappeared immediately with the return of the regular season, a few joined the big league.
Hollywood is far too unionized for this scenario to play out on in the writers room for The Tonight Show, Desperate Housewives or Heroes. But if the writers strike creates an extended dearth of new material on the big screen and televisions nationwide, new media may have its moment in the sun. Sites like YouTube have already shown that American consumers are willing to watch consumer-created media. If television content disappears - creating an extended summer break of sorts - the conditions might suddenly exist for a tipping point shift towards new media.
Hollywood knows that it has a lot to lose from the writers strike. But the real loss could be much larger than anyone imagines. When consumers become more expert at finding video on the web just as amateurs are getting better at delivering it, the advertising model behind network television, which depends heavily on the scale of the audience watching commercials, could vanish. Then Hollywood writers could return to work and find the stadiums empty, the fans gone.
November 6th, 2007 at 3:06 am
[…] Another fellow blogger created an interesting post today on COMMENTARY: Could the Hollywood Writers Strike Spur New Media?.Here’s a short outline:Issue: The Hollywood writers strike may have unintended consequences Commentary by: David Vinjamuri This morning at 12:01 am, Hollywood writers went on strike for the first time since 1988. Most of the commentary around this strike has … […]
November 6th, 2007 at 9:09 pm
Or maybe they’d realize that the stadium just moved online and the seats are all filled. I think that’s the next step: people are just going to figure out how to put an exact price tag on online media.
November 13th, 2007 at 5:39 am
[…] David Vinjamuri asks whether or not the Hollywood writer’s strike will impact new media. With the advancement and adoption of citizen journalism via YouTube and a variety of other sources, will Hollywood writers soon find themselves without an audience? […]
November 18th, 2007 at 10:12 pm
I understand the writers feeling the way that they do. However, in this time pressed society, where people don’t have time to care about much anymore…we will abandon Grey’s Anatomy and other shows faster than you can say “Vajayjay”. We have each other to occupy ourselves with. A typical YouTube clip runs about 3:00 minutes, which is much more convenient for those of us who don’t have time to sit around the boob tube and fast forward through those now-useless commercials.
December 19th, 2007 at 8:51 pm
Hollywood is slowly decreasing the very thing it is fighting for- a piece of the pie.
If the writer’s and the studioheads don’t come to some sort of agreement soon, the public will turn to other forms of entertainment to keep them busy- books! What a concept!
Then, they won’t need the People’s Choice Awards, The Golden Globes, or The Oscars, because the public won’t care!
Enoughs enough!
I was for the writers in the beginning, but now I think this is a deadlock struggle that no one will truly win.
And, the sad thing is, the writer’s that really could have benefited from this (plus the misc other people that put together tvs and movies) are having a crummy holiday season because they are out of work and not getting paid. How ironic.
I can’t wait to see what advertisers do about this change in the tv lineup next year. They are not going to pay prime dollars to show commercials during repeats. Without a February or May sweeps month, the studios and networks are going to lose money. Again, how ironic!
Soon this piece of the pie they are all fighting for will be nothing more than a poptart!
January 24th, 2008 at 2:08 am
More and more people are turning away from traditional media and looking to the internet for the entertainment anyway. This will just encourage more people to watch viral video and advertising online instead of on TV or at the cinema. It will only backfire on them