that breakdown is a trip. I love Moonves salary figures up there.

My understanding is that the WGA believes that, according to that letter, iTunes residuals should be 1.2%.

That number was quoted in the EW article I just read, except it said it was what the producers were offering, implying that the WGA wanted more (and according to Wolfram's link, yes, they want 2.5%).

The WGA wants 2.5% in the new contract. But the AMPTP has taken the position, in these current negotiations, that electronic sell through -- aka iTunes et al -- is the same as DVDs and should be paid at the same rate.

The arbitration, which pre-dates this negotiation, deals with all electronic sell through since the 2001 sideletter. I think Disney started this. They decided to lump iTunes sales in with DVD sales and pay it all at the same DVD rate.

[link]

The Terminator has gotten involved:

But the production halts have thrown many hundreds of crew members out of work, from hairstylists and makeup artists to camera operators and carpenters, with fallout rippling through the local economy.

"That's the sad story, because the studio executives are not going to suffer, the union leaders are not going to suffer, the writers that are striking, they are not going to suffer. Those are all people that have money," Schwarzenegger said when asked about the strike.

Some studio executives, such as News Corp. chief operating officer Peter Chernin, have said the strike could actually have a short-term benefit because the companies save on production and development costs.

???????????

That's like saying you're going to save on heating costs when your house has burned down.

Some studio executives, such as News Corp. chief operating officer Peter Chernin, have said the strike could actually have a short-term benefit because the companies save on production and development costs.

Wow. Who knew smoking crack could produce that kind of clarity?

I'd love to see some numbers on production companies who ramped up production in the past several months so they could stockpile eps and are now stuck with X number of extra employees/space/equipment and NO WORK.

Peter Chernin is responsible for News Corps financial results, and he's ultimately saying he doesn't expect the quarter results to be effected. In fact, they might be better.

Also;

At least two major television studios, 20th Century Fox and CBS Paramount, have sent breach-of-contract letters to the show runners on their current series who have stopped performing their production duties once they went on strike with other television writers.

I'd love to see some numbers on production companies who ramped up production in the past several months so they could stockpile eps and are now stuck with X number of extra employees/space/equipment and NO WORK.

Won't they lay the people off? I read in the paper this morning about rental equimpment being returned as well.

It is maneuvering. An attempt to put pressure on the striking writers so that they will put pressure on their union leaders to settle. Notice the attempt to disassociate the writers from the unions by the governor. Also note the attempt to put pressure on the showrunners, some of the highest profile writers. From my limited understanding, the '88 strike was settled in part by pressure from showrunners onto union leadership...

There was the leaked news that the DGA (Director's Guild) may go in to negotiate their new contract early (now rather than in March) and then presenting the new standards to the WGA fait accompli. Since the WGA and DGA have a bad history (6 years back the DGA undercut the WGA negotiations) the fear of a repeat would push the WGA into accepting what they could get. Which is probably exactly why the news was leaked, irrespective of any truth to it. I would presume that if the DGA would jump in, it won't be for a few more weeks. They want to wait long enough for the corps to feel the pinch and want to make a deal, but not so long that the writers are feeling it and the corps think if they last just one more week they will win.

But for the moment, solidarity appears to be running strong among the other unions, if for no other reason that if they don't hold the line on the internet here, all of the other unions will have a much harder time getting any piece of that pie. Also I understand that there are more outlets for work now, so hopefully they will be able to put food on the table. People knew that this strike was coming, so hopefully they stashed money away.