https://www.intersect.news/p/striking-screenwriters-target-netflix?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Union leaders single out the streamer as a major roadblock in approving a new contract, and everyone from the Teamsters to the Directors Guild are piling on. “Let’s hit ’em where it hurts.”
Striking Hollywood screenwriters have zeroed in on the one studio that union leaders say is being the least cooperative in negotiating a new contract: Netflix.
Some 2,000 scribes gathered inside the Shrine Auditorium, the one-time home of the Academy Awards, late Wednesday in what labor leaders are calling the most significant rally the industry has seen in decades. Writers Guild of America lead negotiator Ellen Stutzman and her team told the crowd that the steaming giant isn’t budging on concessions.
Then came a fiery chain-reaction among the crowd when one screenwriter grabbed the microphone during the Q&A session to proclaim: “Let’s cancel Netflix.” And within hours the guild’s 11,500 members launched a precision social-media campaign that sent the #CancelNetflix hashtag trending on Twitter.
“People have been asking how they can support the writers strike,” said Lila Byock, an Emmy winning screenwriter behind hits like Watchmen, Castle Rock and The Leftovers. “My answer is #CancelNetflix, and tell them #IStandWithWGA. Let’s hit ‘em where it hurts.”
Being the only major studio called out by the WGA is a major problem for Netflix, whose stock price once hovered at $700 and slumped to about $300 after hemorrhaging millions of customers in the past year.
This also compounds a strategy laid out by the streamer’s co-chief executives Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters to resuscitate subscriber rolls through a crackdown on password sharing and the launch of a new ad-tiered offering.
Netflix is trying to fend off heated competition from Disney+, Warner Bros. Discovery’s newly-branded MAX streamer, and Paramount+. The rivals are all vying to knock Netflix off its perch as the dominant force streaming television and movies to consumers globally.
“Sounds like a case of biting the hand that is feeding you,” said one money manager in an email, who was not authorized to go on the record. “You don’t want to be singled out by every corner of Hollywood. Optics wise, they can’t afford this.”
Netflix has a major disadvantage compared to legacy entertainment giants — there is literally no diversity in the company’s business model. It is all streaming, all the time, and nothing else.
Disney’s business is driven by revenue from amusement parks, merchandising everything from Mickey Mouse shirts to Star Wars action figures, sports programing through ESPN and substantial news operations. WBD and Paramount also rely on other income streams — besides just scripted and unscripted entertainment — to beef up their bottom lines.
Case in point, Paramount chief Executive Bob Bakish told investors Thursday that he hopes both sides can “come to a resolution that works for everyone fairly quickly. He the tried to assuage shareholders during the company’s first-quarter earnings report that “we have a lot of content in the can. So, with the exception of things like late-night shows, consumers won’t really notice anything for a while.”
Negotiations for a new three-year contract began more than a month ago between the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. However, on May 1, just hours before the current contract was set to expire, talks came to a close without reaching a new agreement.
Despite an overwhelming 98% strike authorization vote from WGA members in April, the studios didn’t seem to take the possibility of a strike seriously. There are significant disagreements between the two sides on issues such as compensation, transparency, job security, and the role of writers in the entertainment industry’s shift to streaming.
The last time the WGA went on strike was in 2007-2008, which lasted for 100 days.
Like Bakish alluded to, the major Hollywood studios can likely survive a protracted strike much better than Netflix can by relying on live events. They also have a steady stream of summer blockbusters queued up. And, in this era of binge watching, Netflix hits like “The Diplomat” — which most consumers have already blazed through — might not see the second season for quite some time.
The other main issue that Hollywood is reckoning with is that the WGA strike has now become something of an inter-labor dispute. Everyone from below the line unions representing crew to directors are standing in solidarity with writers.
Many notable figures in the entertainment industry labor movement, including representatives from The Directors Guild of America, SAG-AFTRA, the Laborers’ International Union of North America, Operative Plasterers’ and Cement Masons’ International Association, and IATSE, joined the writers at the auditorium on Wednesday. Both the DGA and SAG-AFTRA have contracts with the AMPTP set to expire on June 30, which has raised concerns among industry players about the potential for additional strikes.
Lindsay Dougherty, the leader of Teamsters Local 399, emphasized the importance of unity in defeating their opponents when she addressed the audience: “The only way we’re gonna beat these mother fuckers is if we do it together.”
