Media Wonk

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A striking proposal - November 5, 2007

Tons of coverage today of the Writers Guild strike that will shut down most TV production for the time being, so I won't bother rehashing the play-by-play. But one apparent sticking point in the unsuccessful negotiations caught Media Wonk's eye because it goes to one of the most disruptive effects that digital technology is having on the media business.

It concerns producers' demand for a broad "promotional" exemption that would allow the re-use of movies and TV shows on new platforms without the payment of residuals, and a "window" of free re-use on the Internet.

For the writers still steamed over falling for the "new media" discount line on home video residuals in 1986, the proposal naturally smells like the same old wine dressed up in a new digital bottle, and so they've rejected it.

I'll insert here the disclaimer that as someone who works in the word dodge, I know in my bones that writers always get hosed. So Media Wonk's natural sympathies are with the Guild. But in this case, the producers have a point, albeit not the one they probably think they have.

One reason the DRM and digital copyright wars have been so endless, and so intractable, is because content owners cling to the notion that every copy, every use of their content, implicates their rights and should be monetized, or at least specifically accounted for, before it is permitted. In a networked environment like the Internet, however, use-based or copy-based models have not proved particularly successful or efficient. Mostly what they do is impose substantial technological, legal and financial overhead without necessarily increasing revenue.

By and large, Hollywood labor contracts share rest on the same logic. Residuals historically have been based on per-use, per-unit or per-title formulas. But there's no more reason to believe that a per-use model is the most efficient way to compensate writers in a networked environment than there is to believe it's the best monetization model for producers. In a networked environment, access to the network is where value is changing hands, certainly more so than in the exchange of copies on the network.

In the immediate case, of course, the producers are probably just trying to get something for nothing. But ultimately, it's not just the studios and networks that need to find that elusive "new business model." Everyone with a stake in where the money goes will need one, too.


UPDATE: Jon Healy has a good take on a similar theme in today's LATimes.
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