Hollywood Writers Score Victory in Battle Over Webisodes

Hollywood writers have scored a big win in their fight to receive minimum wages and union-mandated residuals for their work on webisodes, in what is shaping up to be a war over payment and jurisdiction just as they've settled in for long-term contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). The previous three-year contract expires in late October and is not expected to be seriously addressed until next summer when the directors and actors guilds begin their own negotiations.

The main issue between the studios and the Writers Guild of America is focusing on a disagreement on how residuals should be applied to content created by union writers solely for airing over the Internet, typically on the websites of broadcast networks such as ABC and CBS.

Writers have argued for years that the current residual formula that applies to VHS and DVD rentals and sales, as well as syndication and reruns on cable, were negotiated in bad faith by the studios many years ago, resulting in a lopsided bargain where writers often receive around five cents for every DVD sold while studios reap the lions share of profits.

WGA leaders are desperate not to allow the studios to dictate how the residuals process will work with webisodes allowing a repeat of past errors - including whether or not there will be residuals at all - with the current leadership elected on a platform of taking a tough stance against the studios.

NBC has been perhaps the most combative in skirmishes with WGA over webisodes, and how they should be paid for. In October of last year, writers for the Scifi Channel's hit drama "Battlestar Galactica" refused to make more than the initial batch of webisodes they were told to create unless they were paid residuals and minimum wages in the same way they are paid for writing episodes for the television show itself.