November
6
More Details of WGA Sunday Meeting Revealed
Two studio chiefs intervened in trying to settle the strike last weekend. News Corp's Chernin and CBS' Les Moonves both told the writers privately, on Saturday, that if they dropped the DVD proposal, they'd get something workable in Internet.
That's why on Sunday morning, the writers suddenly took the DVD issue off the table. But the AMPTP caucused, and came back with a response to a WGA proposal about the funding of the Showrunner Training Program. The writers said they wanted to talk about Internet matters, and would stay in the room as long as it took to work that through. But they said that if the two sides weren't close to an agreement, they would strike while still continuing to talk.
The AMPTP caucused and came back with one adjustment to a peripheral internet proposal, but refused to discuss the internet-downloads-at-DVD-rate, or free "promotional" screening. The writer negotiators said they would stay in the room as long as necessary, but that the strike would occur at 9 pm PST. At 9, the AMPTP asked the writers to call off the strike. When the WGA refused, the producers walked.
In other words, when the AMPTP negotiators didn't live up to what was proffered backchannel by the CEOs, the writers got very pissed off.
The producers' behavior turned Shawn Ryan, who was in the room, from being a supporter of the strike, to a showrunner who's not showing up for work. Observers on the picket lines have been struck by how organized and revved up the writers are.
The movie studios seem in no hurry to work things out. What the likes of Chernin and Moonves are worried about is the impact of a protracted strike on the TV networks, which could lose viewers to rival entertainment like cable, the Internet, games, and Netflix.



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