Gizmodo: writers

Producers Say the Strike Has Cost Writers $106 Million...and Counting

matt buchanan — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 19:20:34 EST

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers has a fun new flash widget on their site with a running tally of how much income the writers have dropped into a black hole since the strike started. Right now, it's at about $106 million. Kind of a dick move if you ask us, since producers trying to screw writers is why they're at impasse. Besides, writers stand to lose a lot more if they let producers slime their way out of fair compensation deals for new media and internet distribution. Hey writers! If you need some cash in the meantime and don't have Aflac, talk to us. [AMPTP]

Digital Distribution Tangling Up Writers Guild of America Talks, Strike Looms

Matt Buchanan — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 03:15:16 EDT

In case you were unawares, the contract between Hollywood producers and the Writers Guild of America was supposed to expire a few hours ago, leading to a possible strike, meaning bad things could happen. One of the major issues is digital content and distribution—after getting screwed over by the terms of how they were paid from video and DVD, set many moons ago, they're leery of losing out on tons of cash yet again. Since a multitude of content is going online in an infinitude of formats—web-exclusive content, full episode replays, ARG, etc. on network websites, iTunes and the works—the terms are inevitably just as complicated. Right now, writers only get coin if a viewer pays to see the goods, making ad-supported Hulu, for instance, a black hole for them no matter how many users tune in.

What the guild's asking for with online or mobile distribution is 2.5 percent of the "distributors' gross revenue." Apparently this is tricky for distributors because it's difficult to tell what percentage of the online audience is new to a show or old hands simply shifting to a different medium—I'm guessing this is a problem for the issue at hand because producers don't want to pay writers twice for the same audience.

But, it seems unfair to only compensate writers for content explicitly purchased by viewers (like on iTunes), particularly as more and more content shifts online supported by ads, even if that ad revenue is nowhere near what is for broadcast for the time being. It's only going to get bigger, so they should get a hold of what they can, while they can, lest they feel screwed once again in a few years. [WSJ]

Pioneer BDR-103: HD DVD/Blu-ray Combo Burner to Ship Next Year

Charlie White — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 11:29:39 EDT

Pioneer announced it will release a dual-format HD DVD and Blu-ray writer sometime next year. The BDR-103 will integrate both formats into one drive, and it will support recordable and rewritable discs on both formats as well as play back prerecorded content.

Other manufacturers such as Toshiba, Samsung and LG have dabbled with the idea of a combo HD DVD/Blu-ray player, and we're thinking that both home theater players and burners such as this upcoming Pioneer model are inevitable. It's information like this just released from Pioneer that will keep smart buyers on the sidelines until dual-format players and burners are available. – Charlie White

Pioneer to release Dual format HD-DVD / Blu-Ray Writer [CD Freaks, via HD Beat]