News and Links: AMPTP vs. The D

UPDATE: The Fremantle picket and rally on Friday will feature a performance by Tenacious D. Also scheduled to appear: Writer Boi. We are told more bookings will be announced.

Most Recent UH News

� Info on the Holiday Harvest Food Drive at picket sites
� E-mail from John Bowman on the current WGA proposals
� Financial details of the WGA proposals, analysis of the AMPTP's partial proposal
� AMPTP shifts tone. Will it shift tactics?
� Exclusive info on the WGA counter to fixed-rate online residuals: fair and affordable tiers
� Castle Park event sponsored by WGA writers for families impacted by strike
� Carlton Cuse reaffirms resolve to get a fair deal

Around the Web

� Wall Street firm Natixis Bleichroeder said Monday that it will cut its earnings forecast on media conglomerates if the strike lasts into 2008, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"[T]he strike is beginning to have an economic impact on the television business, will shortly begin impacting the film side (and) if not resolved will impact our estimates for 2008."
The investment firm said companies whose earnings could be hurt by a protracted writers strike include CBS, Time Warner, Disney, News Corp. and Viacom. But owners of broadcast networks would be hurt first and CBS the most, Natixis said.
"Assuming the strike costs ABC, CBS and Fox each $100 million of revenue and income off of their $5 billion-$6 billion of TV network and station businesses, the impact would be 9 cents off of our 2008 CBS estimate of $1.95 (earnings per share), 3 cents per share off of our (Disney) estimate of $2.30 and 2 cents per share off of our (News Corp.) estimate of $1.20," the firm said.

$100 million each? And the totality of our proposal is $150 million for all the companies combined and over three years? You know, I'm pleased with all the civility going on now, so I'm not going to say anything more.

� Legal columnist Nancy Prager makes an interesting observation: When you watch content for free via BitTorrent, and the companies don't get paid, it's piracy. When you watch content for free via the companies, and the writer doesn't get paid, it's "promotional."

� Kassandra from Washington wrote to alert us about a gesture of support from Tanya Huff, the author of the books on which Lifetime's show "Blood Ties" is based. Tanya found out that Lifetime was not going to air the final two episodes of the season and instead stream them online. She decided to discontinue her official blogging for Lifetime.com in protest. As she writes on her personal site:

[T]his is the message I sent to Lifetime yesterday:

"While I'll certainly blog the last televised episode I feel that, given how much the WGA strike concerns internet downloads and new media, as a member of the WGC I'd be ethically crossing the line should I blog for episodes only available as downloads by an American network. Don't worry about the fans, I'll let them know."

So this is me letting you know. There'll be one final blog for tonight's airing of The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly posted on the Lifetime site. And that's it for them. You can dl the next episode -- We'll Meet Again -- tonight as well but here's the thing about dl's, it's one of the big things the WGA is striking over -- the networks make serious money off them but the writers see none of it -- so I can't in good conscience recommend you do that.

Our thanks go out to Tanya for her stance.

� Pablo Goldbarg, an amateur filmmaker in NYC who's been volunteering on the picket lines, posted these great sound bites from Guild east members and supporters including Tina Fey and John Hodgman.

� Jeff Schubert writes that WGA negotiator Mark Gunn will participate in a live interview tonight at 8:00pm Pacific on his Internet film show "Filmnut." Questions from viewers will be taken via IM.