Inside WGA Talks: ‘Constructive Energy’ Eases Tension in Early Bargaining Sessions, Say Variety Experts

“Will there be a strike?” is one of the more anxiety-provoking questions facing Hollywood at the moment, with contract negotiations between the Writers Guild of America and the studios underway in the shadow of streaming’s profound impact on the entertainment business.

As Variety Intelligence Platform’s latest special report Time to Strike? makes clear, the transforming content landscape has reduced the number of paying opportunities for writers, and made it more difficult for them to eke out a living in Hollywood.

That question — Will there be a strike? — was also the central topic of a LinkedIn Live webinar hosted by VIP+ examining the key issues surrounding and informing the WGA’s negotiations. VIP+ senior media analyst Gavin Bridge held a wide-ranging discussion with Variety Co-Editor-In-Chief Cynthia Littleton and Varietys own labor expert Gene Maddaus, who have each covered the current, and prior, unrest extensively.

One key point to note is that both sides — the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers — are working to reach a compromise and avert a strike, which would further hobble the entertainment industry at an already uneasy economic moment. The 2007-08 writers strike lasted 100 days and cost the Los Angeles economy anywhere from $2 billion to $3 billion, according to varying estimates. In a recent VIP+ and YouGov survey of entertainment-industry pros, one-third of those polled believed a 2023 strike would last between one and three months.

Littleton described this potential strike as “a fundamental shuttering of production activity” that “no one thinks would be good for the industry,” adding, “I don’t think there’s anybody in that room wants to go on strike. From everything I’ve heard, it feels like there is a lot of constructive energy going toward figuring out how to make a deal versus rhetoric that could be inflammatory.”

That said, there are several contentious points to address in the negotiations, particularly the changing business models that have left many writers struggling financially.

Under the old network TV model, writers on hit series could expect steady employment while the show ran, along with a flow of residual income if a show went into syndication. Streaming has changed that, impacting everything from the size and composition of TV writers’ rooms to the number of episodes produced, from residual opportunities to the timeframes in which shows are written and produced.

“[The old model] created a construct that was very successful, and a very comfortable living for many writers — not just superstars but mid-level working writers,” Littleton explained. But streaming shifted these business models toward, as Maddaus put it, “a freelance existence where it used to feel more like a stable job,” comparing the situation to the shift from taxi drivers to Uber.

“When you think about this explosion of platforms that we have now, and the explosion in the number of TV shows ... it sounds like more work for everybody,” Maddaus noted. “What you don’t see is that there are more shows, but they’re shorter seasons, they’re fewer episodes. You might have a show that only employs you for 20 weeks, so half of the year you’re unemployed or looking for something else to do.”

But while the ways in which content is created and distributed have evolved, compensation models, by and large, have not. As Littleton pointed out, the old system is “baked into the Writers Guild contracts in a way that has absolutely not kept up with the way television is produced and exhibited, and that’s created a lot of strain internally.”

Hence the air of contention heading into negotiations. Still, evolving business models and rapid changes are nothing new for Hollywood, and the industry will continue to adapt as the transformations keep roiling the media sector.

“This business, from the days of the player piano, has been a constant dance between creative and technology,” said Littleton, the author of "TV on Strike: Why Hollywood Went to War Over the Internet," a book that chronicled the 2007-08 WGA strike. “It’s one of the things that is absolutely fascinating and dynamic and intriguing, but also vexing, about this business.”

Watch the full webinar above for more expert commentary from Littleton and Maddaus as well as exclusive data on TV and streaming trends impacting the contract discussions. And stay tuned to Variety’s coverage of the WGA-AMPTP negotiations as the talks continue. You can also view the entertainment industry survey results, and dig into the expansive VIP+ special report for further data on the issues covered above and much more.