The Wall Street Journal-20080114-Action- Director-Studio Talks Could Affect Writers
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Action? Director-Studio Talks Could Affect Writers
Striking film and television writers are about to face a severe test of unity as their union's work stoppage enters its 11th week.
With the Writers Guild of America at an impasse in its contentious showdown with Hollywood studios, another industry union -- the Directors Guild of America -- spent the weekend engaged in its own negotiation with the same parties. If the directors, as expected, reach a quick deal with the studios, it will pressure the writers to accept similar terms on issues that affect both guilds, such as new- media residuals -- a situation likely to provoke a debate among writers about whether they should continue their walkout.
The situation within the writers' guild is complicated by the effects of the strike. While some writers are starting to feel financial pain, the companies that produce and distribute movies and TV shows have yet to see much effect on their bottom lines -- despite the high-profile implosion of last night's Golden Globes awards gala, which was downgraded to a "press conference" when writers threatened to picket the traditional Globes dinner.
And while overall broadcast TV ratings are down slightly in prime time this season thus far, that may not be attributable to the strike, but rather the continuing erosion of television viewership. Meanwhile, some late-night talk shows that have returned to the airwaves after being knocked out by the strike are enjoying higher ratings -- even though most of them can't use their usual teams of joke writers.
Representatives of the directors' guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which negotiates on behalf of the major studios, began formal negotiations in Encino, Calif., on Saturday morning. Preceding the formal talks were months of back and forth between DGA Executive Director Jay Roth, negotiating committee head Gilbert Cates and studio executives, including Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Bob Iger and News Corp. President Peter Chernin.
Those informal sessions set the framework for the negotiations, and the two sides were expected to reach consensus on a new labor contract for the directors' guild's roughly 13,500 members in a matter of days. Should they ink a deal, with agreements reached on important issues -- including how to compensate directors on use of their work on the Internet and via other new media -- the terms will be on display for the writers to examine. Any new directors' deal could also forestall a walkout by the 120,000-member Screen Actors Guild, whose contract -- like the directors' guild's -- expires on June 30.
Both the directors' guild and the AMPTP said they would have no further comment until a deal was announced.
Writers Guild of America West President Patric Verrone has said in the past that the writers wouldn't automatically accept any deal the directors' guild makes with the studios. In a combined statement with the actors on Friday, the writers' guild wished the DGA well, but said "it is important to remember that they do not represent actors and writers."
The lack of writing work is taking a toll. On Friday, Disney's ABC Studios permanently severed some TV development deals -- in which writers are paid to generate ideas even if they don't make it into production -- through "force majeure" clauses.
Meanwhile, late-night hosts have returned to the air -- most without their writers -- removing the biggest thorn from the TV networks' side. In the fourth quarter, when the late-night shows went into reruns, ad spending on eight of the most prominent broadcast and cable late-night talk shows plummeted to $92 million, 59% below the same period in 2006, according to TNS Media Intelligence.
Now, early indications are that the problem may be resolving itself. "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" averaged 5.9 million viewers in its first three nights back on the air, 16% more than its prestrike season average, according to Nielsen Media Research. "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" was up 23% -- despite Mr. O'Brien killing time by dancing with lasers and showing rambling videos about his own staff.
"Late Show with David Letterman" -- which is back with both writers and celebrity guests because Mr. Letterman's company hammered out an interim agreement with the writers' guild -- may be seeing an additional benefit: It appears to have narrowed the ratings gap with "The Tonight Show." On one day last week, Mr. Letterman's show beat Mr. Leno's in Nielsen's electronically metered local markets, for which early data are available.
One show that hasn't benefited is "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," on Comedy Central, a unit of Viacom Inc. The show returned to the air last week without writers, and was heavy with interviews to fill time; it averaged about 20% fewer viewers compared with the week before the strike began. Although Mr. Stewart's ratings recovered somewhat during the week, critics lambasted him when he returned to the air with a program that was less humorous than polemical, skewering the AMPTP as well as complaining that the writers' guild didn't sign an interim agreement with him as it did with Mr. Letterman's company.
