The WGA did eventually strike. What tactics could the producers have used to fight -

back once the strike began? What tactics do you think the WGA used? The talks between the Writers Guild of America

(WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture &

Television Producers (producers) began tense in 2007, and then got tenser. In their first meeting, the two sides got nothing done. As Law & Order producer Dick Wolf said, “Everyone in the room is concerned about this.””!

The two sides were far apart on just about all the issues. However, the biggest issue was how to split revenue from new media, such as when television shows move on to DVDs or the Internet. The producers said they wanted a profit-splitting system rather than the current residual system. Under the residual system, writers continue to receive “residuals,” or income from shows they write, every time they’re shown (such as when the Jerry Seinfeld show appears in reruns, years after they shot the last original show). Writers Guild executives did their homework. They argued, for instance, that the projections showed producers’ revenues from advertising and subscription fees jumped by about 40% between 2002 and 2006.