Variety has a news flash. They’ve figured out that we weren’t kidding when we said the Commercials Contract talks look like they’re headed into overtime. The contract expires in four hours, talks are continuing, and everyone seems calm.
The MPAA is out with its annual statistics. Despite the world wide recession, ticket sales are up 5.8% to over $28 billion…with 65% of that money is coming from foreign sales. U.S. box office also rose, by $200 million to $9.8 billion, even though the number of tickets sold was down 2.6%.
The Wrap has a [...]
Two interesting stories in the New York Times yesterday deserve a second look. One suggests there’s big pushback against the idea of all cable content becoming free on the web, and instead there may be a subscription model taking its place, where you have to buy access on a monthly basis to see programs.
“Free is [...]
Writing on the JPC blog for the first time since March 19th, JPC chief negotiator Doug Wood seeks to sound a reassuring note:
Negotiations Update
As you are all aware, we’re approaching the “midnight hour” in our negotiations. While both sides have made major progress and I remain cautiously optimistic, the next couple of days will [...]
With rare exceptions such as Joss Whedon’s “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” last July, which online viewers flocked to see at $1.99 a pop, original online content is still struggling to find a viable business model. Funding is a challenge — one producer likens it to “pulling together the cash for an indie movie” — [...]
Regulars here know the commercials contract talks are going down to the wire, moving towards a Tuesday midnight expiration. Variety’s discovered it.
There report is consistent with everything else we’ve heard. Slow, difficult bargaining, with some progress. Everyone on the union side working well together.
One snarky line in the Variety story:
“SAG has often allowed contracts to [...]
