Netflix Reportedly Responsible for Writer’s Guild of America Strike, Won’t Make a Deal at Any Cost
The Writer’s Guild of America is going on an all-out strike demanding higher pay. The community has what CNBC dubbed as an “overwhelming support among Hollywood writers.” Among the writers, producers, and studios, the bad guy depends on whose side you are on, but there is one narrative gaining predominance and that narrative believes Netflix to be the face of evil corporate. The issue was discussed on John Rocha’s podcast The Hot Mic with Hollywood critic Jeff Sneider, who had quite some insights to share with the world.
Jeff Sneider believes that the studios want the Writer’s Guild of America to strike
While on the podcast, Jeff Sneider was asked by the host, John Rocha, to comment on the WGA strike. Sneider replied,
“We’re basically on the eve of the strike. The WGA has already tweeted out photos of them assembling the picket signs and everything. It doesn’t really seem like there’s going to be any last-minute heroics.”
He then had quite an interesting take to share as he said,
“Part of me thinks that the studios and streamers and that side of things want the strike… It would allow them to just sort of reset a few different things and… ultimately save money… Eventually, they’re going to have to pay the writers because the strike is going to have to end at some point so they will come to some sort of compromise.”
This is indeed quite a controversial take to suggest that studios might benefit from a strike for pay but at this point, everyone is entitled to their own speculations.
Is Netflix the villain here?
Sneider went on to share an inside “rumor” that has been making the rounds lately. He shared,
“Apparently there’s a rumor going around on tracking boards and things like that – they blame the whole thing on Netflix and… like the studios are actually ready to make a deal. It’s Netflix that’s refusing to make a deal because they don’t wanna have to… show transparency for the streaming numbers. That’s you know a big part of it.”
Although, Sneider quickly went on to play it safe by claiming that he cannot vouch for anything he said and that his source wasn’t very sure of himself either. However, there are other reports that add up with the aforementioned “rumor”. CNBC reported how Netflix has cut the cost of their first quarter by over a billion of what they spent in the first quarter of 2022. And all this cost-cutting has been done with one result in mind, an increase in net profit in the wake of underwhelming growth in the number of their streamers. With the cost-cutting necessary to compensate for the lower budget, it seems likely that writers among others are set to lose their rightful pay as well.
While it has still not been proven whether Netflix is solely responsible for the strike or not, it is slowly becoming a widely accepted hypothesis.
Watch the video here:
