“Hollywood Screenwriters Go on Strike Amid Streaming Industry Changes”

couples Lisa Richwine and Dawn Chmielewski

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Thousands of screenwriters working for film and television in Hollywood will go on strike from Tuesday as the U.S. entertainment industry grapples with sweeping changes sparked by the expansion video streaming.

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) union has announced its first strike in 15 years after failing to reach an agreement to win higher salaries from studios including Walt Disney and Netflix (NASDAQ:). The last such strike lasted 100 days and cost the Californian economy more than $2 billion.

The union represents about 11,500 writers in New York, Los Angeles and elsewhere. Its members were to begin picketing outside Hollywood studios from Tuesday afternoon.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents the studios, said late Monday that it had offered “generous compensation increases” to screenwriters, but the two sides had not reached to an agreement.

Streaming companies are facing pressure from Wall Street to make their video streaming services profitable, after investing billions of dollars in their content to attract subscribers.

The rise of these platforms has led to a decline in television audiences and consequently a decline in advertising revenues. In addition, the country faces a threat of recession.

The last strikes of the WGA, in 2007 and 2008, cost the Californian economy approximately 2.1 billion dollars, with the interruption of the productions as well as the fall of the expenses of the employees of the sector.

(Reporting Lisa Richwine, Dawn Chmielewski and Danielle Broadway in Los Angeles, with contributions from Ben Kellerman in New York; French version Kate Entringer)