Digital Pencils and Picket Signs

[Gwen Schantz]

As most of us already know, there's a major Screenwriters strike going on in New York and LA this week, and that the networks are all in a tizzy over how they'll fill their air time (good thing Conan is just as funny in rerun form). What some of us may not have noticed, however, is that the strike is all about new media - the writers want royalties from their shows that air on digital media and the networks and studios just don't want to give it to them.

This is a testament to the promise of new media as a major revenue source for the TV and film industries. In essence, New Media offers big profits to the industry, and industry execs don't want to share. Everyone - even the actors whose jobs are at stake due to the strike - seems to be siding with the writers. Let's just hope that the execs will wise up and give in soon, because I don't think I could handle a holiday season without the requisite tear-jerking Christmas episodes that will only come to fruition if the the Screenwriters get out of their picket line an back to the drawing board.