Comments on: Disney Latest Big Media Behemoth To Profit During Recession & Writers Strike

By: worly

worly — Sun, 11 May 2008 01:56:53 +0000

I think this just further goes to show how pitiful the writing talents of today’s television industry truly are. Does anyone here actually still watch network tv? No one I know does.

Let them all eat cake, or in this case - their trite, cliched scripts.

By: manny

manny — Wed, 07 May 2008 22:41:22 +0000

@Comment by IDontGetIt — May 6, 2008 @ 3:34 pm
@Comment by andrew — May 6, 2008 @ 4:19 pm

totally agree.

back OT: these numbers probably weren’t even influenced by the strike yet. Even if they are, so what? $1.12 billion dollars of profit on $44 billion spent isn’t all that great, which is to say nothing of $277 million on $30 billion spent. Are they supposed to break exactly even? Would you like to have a job where you are able to exactly pay for your bills month to month and nothing else? Everyone likes to make some profit. Stop being ridiculous. If you don’t understand business why comment on it?

I will say once again, if these profit margins are so great and ‘proof’ that writers or anyone else is getting screwed, demand to stop getting PAID upfront before a project has made a dime like you do now and demand your compensation be virtually all in stocks. I mean, if they are making so much money and you own stocks, you are a co-owner right? You’ll reap their rich rewards. Willing to risk it?

By: andrew

andrew — Tue, 06 May 2008 23:19:03 +0000

i’m all for writers/directors/talent getting paid appropriately, but i don’t think its fair to criticize the big congloms for crying poverty when most of their film divisions as you concede are doing poorly.

By: reelbusy

reelbusy — Tue, 06 May 2008 22:56:33 +0000

The true effect of the strike on the studios bottom line won’t be felt for 3 fiscal quarters. I said it before during the strike and I’m saying it again now….2 more to go.

By: silentuntilnow

silentuntilnow — Tue, 06 May 2008 22:52:03 +0000

Beg to differ, Yaka Hey. Story is a part of the human cognitive presence, as old as the first prehistoric steps and communicative grunts. It’s at the very core of human perception. It’s how we remember our lives and how we understand the world. There will always be a need for writers, no matter how much you want to get rid of us.

By: IDontGetIt

IDontGetIt — Tue, 06 May 2008 22:34:41 +0000

Wait a second here. The strike ended like two months ago and you are somehow attempting to draw a comparison to 12 quarters of revenue?

Any impact from the strike would not be seen for quite some time. Well, I mean on the studios. The devastation that Patric inflicted on the writers, below-the-line people, and others, will last a lifetime.

ALSO, I am not sure how you equate the strike the revenues at any rate. The writer’s strike certainly benefited the studios by precluding them from pouring money to acquire scripts which will never get made. That certainly helps the bottom line (again, helps the bottom line of the studios - the writers got the raw end of the deal, thanks to Verrone).

The blog has gone from fair and balanced (claimed before the WGA strike) to “pro-WGA” (claimed during the strike to ‘even out the media coverage’) to “blindly anti-employer no matter how specious the reasoning”.

By: Yaka Hey

Yaka Hey — Tue, 06 May 2008 22:27:38 +0000

No, what this shows is that we don’t need the writers to provide broadcasting materials.

Too bad: your worthless strike was a waste that hurt no one except your “union” buddies BTL.

I’d advise all English lit majors at UCB, Stnford and Columbia to get out quickly, your “skills” will be meaningless.

By: silentuntilnow

silentuntilnow — Tue, 06 May 2008 22:20:45 +0000

Am I the only person who sees that the conglomerates WANTED the WGA to strike when it did? They knew that the Writers working on the expired contract and striking simultaneously with SAG in June would mean a collective bargaining platform to which they would have had to make greater concessions. So they shoved the most insulting offer they could possibly keep a straight face with across the table and the WGA took the bait. Now, they’ve got what they wanted - the two guilds did/will strike at different times, thus mitigating their contractual financial expenditures.

By: Intrigued

Intrigued — Tue, 06 May 2008 22:13:37 +0000

This can’t correct. All the posters on this site were arguing with me during the writers’ strike telling me that the strike was causing these companies serious financial hardships! These companies must be lying about profits, they were hurt by the strike and just don’t want to admit it.

By: strike damage

strike damage — Tue, 06 May 2008 22:08:34 +0000

nets are feeling the fallout from the strike - low ratings, diminished viewership post-strike

nikki, why don’t you post on this? that’s a big story.

even without the strike, how do the nets expects viewers to stay loyal to a show with the hodge podge scheduling - viewers never know when a new episode or a rerun is on, and after they watch a new episode or two, the next batch of episodes are repeats jammed in as filler so what’s the point?

By: Writer Bob

Writer Bob — Tue, 06 May 2008 21:49:00 +0000

Woo-hoo! Way to go, Patric and David! Hell of a contract you got us!

By: Mr. Relevance

Mr. Relevance — Tue, 06 May 2008 21:22:43 +0000

What does their posting a profit have to do with the writers strike? Or the recession? I’m no fan of conglomerated media either, but this is a bit of a stretch. Would you rather they not profit and slash more jobs?