WGA sent a letter on Tuesday, April 4 to media buyers of the potential strike which may begin on May 2. The strike is to be done to protest the new compensation levels for writers from The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
"I am writing to inform you of a potential labor dispute that could have a significant impact on primetime programming for the 2017-2018 television season,” read the letter written by executive director of Writers Guild of America West David J. Young as quoted by Variety. The letter also mentioned the strike will commence starting May 2. WGA inform the media buyers that the strike may affect their media buying plans.
The dispute was triggered by the new decision by AMPTP to change the writers' compensation level as the change in the economics of broadcasting business has driven TV stations to reduced the number of episodes for their TV series from the norm. Initially, a TV series consist of 22-episodes, but a change of business economics has shrunk the number episodes into shorter one.
WGA has also prepared to conduct authorization vote for the strike to commence on April 19. This strike will affect many TV shows, and many late-night shows that relied on scripts from writers will have to go off-air. Such shows include "Jimmy Kimmel Live," "Saturday Night Live" and "Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon."
The strike will also give an unfavorable affect to the merger between AT&T and Time Warner according to Deadline. The $85 billion merger plan between the two media giants will suffer a delay to deliver shareholder benefits if the strike is commenced. Young mentioned this effect in his letter, which was sent to 40 media buyers.
The latest strike by WGA was conducted 9 years ago from November 2007 to February 2008 by both Writers Guild of America, West and Writers Guild of America, East, demanding better compensation for writers. Watch the comment from Seth MacFarlane on the last strike below:
