The last WGA strike, which started in 2007 and lasted for 100 days, cost the city of Los Angeles an estimated $1.5 billion, according to NPR. Forbes predicts the cost of the two concurrent strikes could exceed $3 billion.
By Kevin Smith, Southern California News Group
It appears both sides are in it for the long haul.
The Writers Guild of America strike hit the 100-day mark on Wednesday, Aug. 9, and the Guild and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers appear to be far from reaching a labor agreement.
Chris Thornberg, an economist and founding partner with Beacon Economics, figures that won’t happen anytime soon.
He attributes the continuing impasse to the wealth of viewing options now available to customers through Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus and a host of other streaming services.
“Hollywood has changed sharply in the last 20 years,” Thornberg said. “Things have always been limited by distribution channels. In the grand old days we had movies theaters and 14 TV stations — no more, no less. But with more distribution channels added, they can suddenly make more and more money off of existing content.”
And for the time being, customers still have plenty to watch.
“It’ll be a long time before people start screaming for new content, because now you can just recycle existing shows and movies,” Thornberg said. “This could go on for quite a while.”
One of the key sticking points in the labor dispute is the residuals from streaming media.
