The Initial Streaming Window

This was submitted by WGA member and StrikeSwag founder Tom Smuts.

Based on blog comments and conversations I've had, many members seem to think that the so-called "Initial Streaming Window" is just another way for the Companies to screw the Writers. It isn't. Not in principle, anyway.

In principle, it's a way for the Companies to capture some of the audience that would have watched the show when it aired if they weren't working, exercising or changing diapers. It's a way to acknowledge that the erosion of network audiences is due, at least in part, to the viewer's desire to control when they watch a show. And whether a viewer does this by recording the show on Tivo (a use for which we don't seek an extra payment) or watching it online in the Initial Streaming Window, the principle that Companies should not pay writers twice for a show's initial audience is a reasonable one.

Some members I've spoken with believe that the Companies will create elaborate schemes to evade this residual. They imagine the Companies streaming shows for 17 days, yanking them until they've been rung dry in the DVD market, and then putting them back online only after 99% of their value has been sucked away. Being married to a show creator and having worked on the business side of a TV company (Fox TV Studios), I have a disgusted admiration for how the Companies shamelessly and acrobatically manipulate the numbers. But I doubt they're going to manipulate the distribution of online content in this way for one simple reason: the audience won't let them.

On the internet, audiences want what they want, when they want, where they want. There is no easy way to accommodate this new reality in a residual framework built for a world in which the Companies told the audiences when and where they could watch a show. Audiences want and will increasingly demand to decide this for themselves. Ultimately, television shows will be online forever from the day they first air on TV.

Under the terms of this deal (as I understand them), the WGA has established the principle that its members will be paid a percentage of distributor's gross for the overwhelming majority of viewers who watch a show in its second window. It is a point Nick Counter vowed we would not win. And it's a testament to our strength as a union that we achieved it.

For this and other reasons, I support the deal and our leadership's authority to continue representing us in this negotiation, including their authority to make a decision to end the strike with or without a vote.

But a vote is better, and I hope the leadership gives the membership that opportunity.

-- Tom Smuts