WGA Strike
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The WGA strike ends with protections against AI set in place
The Writers Guild of America (WGA) has voted to officially lift its strike order, over half a year since it stopped work and demanded a better contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).
Disney queues up "extended" boxed sets of strike-shortened TV shows
The strike is behind us and most shows are back on the air, but don't think you've felt the last of its effects, DVD and Blu-ray boxed sets for most of this season's TV shows will be a few episodes shorter than normal. Apparently the idea of charging a little less is just too outrageous, according to Video Business, Disney plans "extra" features like lengthened episodes and looks behind the scenes -- you know, exactly the kind of thing we've come to expect from our boxed sets. Still interested? Grey's Anatomy fans can look forward to the series Blu-ray debut September 9 (Lost hits December 9), part of a strategy to hit shelves closer to the upcoming seasons so fans might remember who McDreamy & McSteamy are. Mentions of possible Xbox Live debuts, or HD cases of Dirty Sexy Money and Ugly Betty were unfortunately missing.
The WGA strike is over, when are our favorite TV shows returning?
That's right, the dark period is over. The Writer's Guild has ended its strike, and now we can look forward to some of our favorite shows to watch on our HDTVs coming back sooner, later, or not at all. Thanks to our friends over at TV Squad, we've found a pretty comprehensive list at TV Guide, but here's a few of the ones we're looking forward to: Sooner (March/April/May): House, Grey's Anatomy, My Name is Earl, The Office, ER, all the CSI's, One Tree Hill, Lost, Battlestar Galactica, Smallville Later (Fall '08 - 2009): 24, Chuck, Heroes, Life, Pushing Daisies Not at all: Big Shots, Bionic Woman, Journeyman, Life is Wild [Via TV Squad]
The writers strike is in full effect
In case you haven't noticed, most of the best HD shows are in reruns. December is usually a month of reruns, but we've already seen an alternative season finale to Heroes, and in January when we'd normally expect to see our favorite shows come back, you can expect to see more reruns and more reality TV. There are some of our favorites that have some episodes left, like eight episodes of Lost, nine episodes of Medium, ten episodes of Battlestar Galatica, and seven episodes of Jerico. But others like the Office, Heroes, and Big Bang Theory are already out. Hopefully, the writers will get compensation for downloads before the remaining shows run out, and if not at least we'll have more time to watch all those HD DVD and Blu-ray discs.[Via ZatzNotFunny]
Second Life users support the WGA strike
As you may be aware, the Writer's Guild of America, the folks who write our TV and movies, have been on strike for the past month-plus over (among other things) getting paid a cut of revenues for internet play of episodes. Check out our own TV Squad and the excellent Deadline Hollywood Daily for more on this important strike. But what is TV news doing on your Massively? Some inventive Second Life residents have found a way to show their support for the WGA without trekking to LA or New York, where the picket lines are: they held their own hour-long virtual picket on NBC 1, NBC Universal's main Second Life presence.While this probably won't catch the same kind of media attention or get the network's notice the same way the physical picket lines have been, it's still a great way for people who can't easily get to LA or NY to show their support for the scribes. The organizers of this event say "Expect this to be a regular weekend event. All are welcome!", so consider stopping by next weekend if this is an issue you care about, and stop by the original LiveJournal post for more pictures.
Eisner blames Jobs, and Radiohead cleans up
From the "whatever you say, Eisner" department, Engadget brings news that former Disney honcho Michael Eisner is blaming the guy who originally wore the black turtleneck and jeans for the Writers Guild of America strike, of all things. In an interview with a CNET blog, Eisner says that Steve Jobs is taking media companies "to the cleaners," and that Jobsy's the one to blame for the writers' low pay on digital media distribution. "If I was a union," he says, undoubtedly making union leaders' heads everywhere fold back in on themselves with the irony, "I'd be striking up wherever he is."Strange then, that this same day, we also get a story about how Radiohead is doing with their online distribution deal. You'll remember that they passed on iTunes to distribute their music themselves, and now we're hearing that, after all is said and done, Radiohead earned an average of $2.26 per album by asking listeners to download the album for free and pay them whatever they thought it was worth. "$2.26 per album?" you say. "They got screwed! iTunes charges $10!"Ah yes, but apparently Radiohead would have made about $1 per album if they'd gone through traditional channels. So actually, the creators doubled their income per sale. Eisner's crazy-- Jobs isn't to blame for this strike, it's content distributors who don't pay content creators enough for digital distribution. But given that Radiohead is cashing in (and gaining public goodwill to boot), maybe the Writers Guild have a lesson to learn here as well.
The writers' strike effect on HD programming
The ability for a group to go on strike is a fundamental right in American, and while we don't really understand what the problem is -- we'd assume the writers want more money -- we do know we're going to miss out on some HD programming. The first shows to feel the pinch are the live shows like Leno and SNL, next up is the scripted shows which mostly seem to have about 9 episodes under their belt. Luckily some HD programming is resilient like sports and reality TV -- not that there's much HD. At this point it's hard to know how long the strike will last, but if it lasts more than a few months, at least we'll finally be able to catch up on all those HD movies we've been meaning to watch. Here's a short list of our favorite shows that will go into reruns if this thing doesn't end before too long.Heroes - Seasons will end early on Dec 3rd Lost - Expected to have eight out of 16 episodes ready. Medium - Will have 9 of 22 episodes completed. Battlestar Galactica - Has 10 hours of episodes, plus a two hour movie to air this Fall.
