WGA/SAG-AFTRA Strike 2023: Today's Best Links - Friday, August 4th

Post by: Rick Ellis 04 August, 2023

Here is a round-up of the best news coverage of the 2023 WGA/SAG-AFTRA Strike from Friday, August 4th, 2023. Links will be added and updated throughout the day:

* Steven Soderbergh Says It's Time To Tear The Streaming Model Down To The Studs (Defector)
Well, it's just, there are two potential reasons that we're not getting all of the information. One is that they're all making a lot more money than anybody knows and that they're willing to tell us. The other is they're making a lot less money than anybody knows. And they don't want Wall Street to look under the hood of this thing in any significant way because there'll be a reckoning that will be quite unpleasant. It's one of those two.

* WGA & AMPTP Can't Agree To Resume Negotiations (Deadline)
Meeting for the first time in more than three months, the Writers Guild and the AMPTP on Friday failed to reach an agreement to resume contract negotiations. Their inability to agree on terms for returning to the bargaining table comes after their much anticipated meeting to discuss a possible resumption of talks.

* Transcript: WBD And The Struggle Of Legacy Studios (The Ankler)
It's kind of business school economics, or you could probably even put, not to the degree, but how private equity works in a sense of just like you're cutting back all of the spending and you're putting it into these financial metrics. But if you look at the metrics of the company, nothing's growing. There's no business. I mean, streaming, they lost 1.8 million subscribers during the Max debut quarter, which is not shocking and not as big of a deal as it looks at. But advertising is down 13 percent. 55 percent of that revenue of Warner Brothers Discovery is still in the cable bundle. When they're talking about the cable bundle, which they said in quotes, "Is in secular decline," they are not in la-la land about it. But they talk very enthusiastically about how much viewership they get on cable, like it's a big win. I'm like, "Guys, this is not good."

* About That Meeting To Talk About Meeting (Strikegeist)
Actors shut down Lankershim Blvd. — and the exclusive worldwide debut of a new strike-themed anthem!

* Hollywood Food Insecurity Spikes Amid Strikes (The Hollywood Reporter)
As the labor impasse continues, charities say growing numbers of the industry’s most vulnerable are unable to feed themselves: "Before this started, we would do about 50 grants out of the L.A. office a week. Now we’re getting 50 applications a day."

* Striking Actors Rally In Chicago As Contract Dispute With TV And Film Studios Drags On (CBS News Chicago)
Sean Astin, known for his roles in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Rudy, The Goonies, and Stranger Things, spoke at a rally after Friday's march at Daley Plaza."We have no choice but to win. We are facing an existential threat to what it means to be a working performer," Astin said.

* Digital Replicas, A Fear Of Striking Actors, Already Fill Screens (NY Times)
The technology for morphing flesh-and-blood performers into virtual avatars has been improving for years. Now it has become an issue in the actors' strike.

* Culture Shift: How to Picket Accessibly and Intersectionally: 'It's Only Through Relationships and Connection' (The Hollywood Reporter)
The Think Tank for Inclusion and Equity hosted a picket at the Disney lot on July 28 to show solidarity and build awareness for how the deal points at stake in the WGA's MBA particularly affect writers from historically excluded backgrounds.