Category: media

In recent weeks, studios “have had to pay a premium of as much as 10 to 15 percent over actors’ normal salaries to book them into the dozens of movies that are filming between now and June, when the Screen Actors Guild’s contract expires. But with talks set to resume on Monday between striking writers and the movie and television companies, the chance of a quick settlement has added a gust of uncertainty.”

“Five Hollywood studios have sued a Chinese online service and internet cafe they accuse of offering pirated downloads of “Pirates of the Caribbean” and other hit films.”

“Over the next few weeks advertisers and the TV networks in Canada and the United States will begin preparing for the worst – that the three-week-old impasse drags on into January. By then, the well of fresh episodes for the top-rated shows will have run dry. And the ripple effect could be far reaching.”

German politicians have called for “true pan-European television to act as a balance to emerging television giants China, India and Brazil. Those three countries would bypass Europe as the world’s most important TV markets.”

Experts say production on most prime-time shows will come to a standstill by the end of November, and development of new shows will soon be in disarray unless the strike is settled.

“The number of roles played by non-Caucasian actors was at an all-time high in 2005 and ’06 — a continuation of a 15-year trend — and that the total number of lead roles (for minority and nonminority actors) in episodic TV grew by 10 percent from 2005 to ’06.”

“If the writers strike persists through the end of the month, it could suck $200 million from the entertainment industry’s contribution to the Los Angeles economy, one expert predicts.”

Despite some reports to the contrary, US TV networks won’t be looking to pick up many Canadian shows to replace the ones left in the lurch by striking writers, say producers. “U.S. networks already own a wealth of reality shows, previously aired series and movies that can be slotted in” more cheaply.

One of the major challenges of running a Canadian TV network is getting your potential viewers, the vast majority of whom live within a short drive of the US border, to even watch your channel when they get all the big-budget US networks for free. But the writers’ strike is offering northern networks a rare opportunity to recapture lost viewership.

Continuing efforts to halt video piracy are finding themselves stymied by the advance of new technology. As the industry continues to crack down on file sharing, streaming video has stepped in as the new go-to technology of pirates and those who prefer not to pay for their movies.