Writers resist dislocation as streaming and AI seep into US entertainment

By Marivir Montebon

New York – Like the blazing heat of summer, the nationwide writers and workers strike continues without a promising resolution at hand. It will enter its 100th day on August 9. The heart of the matter is the dispossession of thousands of writers of their fees and residual incomes in the advent of digital technology and artificial intelligence (AI).

During a nationwide media forum of the Ethnic Media Services (EMS), Jorge Rivera, the Vice-Chair of the Latinx Writers Committee at the Writers Guild of America (WGA) said that digital technology has displaced thousands of workers and writers in Hollywood as production companies have turned to streaming and artificial intelligence.

The once sustainable career of writing and acting have become the vulnerable gig industry, he said during the July 28, 2023 EMS media briefing.

WGA’s Jorge Rivera

“There's a big myth that everyone in Hollywood is a millionaire. It's absolutely not true. Certainly, there are the Harrison Fords and the Jennifer Lawrences who make millions of dollars but if you look at the end credits of any television show or a feature film, there are hundreds of names there who are craftspeople. They are carpenters and painters and builders and teamsters who drive the trucks and hairstylists and artists.

There are background actors and writers involved, but those background actors are not making a lot of money.  We must remember like Hollywood is largely a blue-collar industry,” said Rivera during the EMS media forum.

Rivera is a producer of true-crime hits for the Investigation Discovery Network, including Twisted Sisters, the network’s highest-rated true-crime series premiere.

The average income for an actor, said Rivera, is 26,000 a year which is barely enough to qualify for their health insurance. The advent of streaming has made the once stable economy into a gig economy for its workers, making life vulnerable and volatile. “We are fighting for just wages and to have a sustainable career. The tech industry has disrupted that,” he said.

Apparently, however, the tech industry, including the use of artificial intelligence to replace the work of real actors and writers, may just be one layer of the issue on sustainable economy for the entertainment industry. Isn’t greed and utter disregard for human beings a major player here?

“It's really obnoxious and unfathomable why the studios won't give in to those very reasonable demands that would, if they were met, would correct the financial ecosystem for everybody,” Rivera remarked.

He cited SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of TV and Radio Artists with a membership of 160,000) which negotiated for 2% of the income share of $200B in 2023 or about $450 Million to cover just wages and benefits to writers and workers. WGA and SAG-AFTRA are still negotiating with the studios as of presstime.

The last major actors and workers strike was in 1960 and won for themselves residual incomes and healthcare benefits. At that time, TV revenues were generated from advertising and sales that doubled when the shows went into re-runs or were being syndicated.  

The coming in of DVD in the 1990s also further boosted the entertainment industry and increased the residual incomes of writers and actors.

Rivera said that their residual checks were then quite substantial, making it easy for writers and actors to have a sustainable career. “It was a very sustainable model. We could afford our own health insurance. We can afford to be in between jobs because of the residuals.”

 With the entry of streaming platforms, writers and actors have lost significant time of work and income. Streaming earns from subscriptions and has substantially wiped-out incomes from advertising sales and syndication. It also eradicated DVD sales.

“The streaming model decimated the old business model that has been working for the last 60 years,” explained Rivera.

Residual checks for actors and writers have been greatly reduced. “Actors and writers used to get $10,000 check for their work for a successful show, now they get checks for $3 and $4 for the same kind of activity. Streaming companies have shrunk budgets from episodes per year to 8 or 10 episodes,” said Rivera.

California State Senator Maria Elena Durazo during the EMS forum emphasized the need for solidarity among unions to push for and win the needed reforms. She mentioned that it was because of the strong labor movement that California was able to push for the ‘betterment of everyone.’

California State Senator Maria Elena Durazo during the EMS briefing

Durazo said that the Senate has been mauling for legislative reforms for workers’ support such as increasing the sick leave to 7 days and affordable housing for workers. She, however, encouraged workers in pushing for reforms to achieve desired results on the bargaining table.  

Durazo was the first woman Secretary-Treasurer to serve at the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO from 2006-2014, the second largest labor council in the country and served on the National AFL-CIO Executive Council.

In the beginning of its strike in May, WGA East wrote on Twitter: “The WGA’s proposal to regulate use of material produced using artificial intelligence or similar technologies ensures the Companies can’t use AI to undermine writers’ working standards including compensation, residuals, separated rights and credits.”

The WGA West likewise proposed to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) to “use AI as a tool — like Final Draft or a pencil — rather than as a writer” to address writers’ concern on losing out on jobs, a Variety magazine reported.

“WGA intended to allow writers to benefit from the technology without getting dragged into credit arbitrations with software manufacturers. The WGA West proposed regulating the use of AI in the writing process; to allow a writer to use ChatGPT to help write a script without having to share writing credit or divide residuals. Or, a studio executive could hand the writer an AI-generated script to rewrite or polish and the writer would still be considered the first writer on the project,” the Variety report said.  #