Former Disney CEO blames Jobs, Apple for writers’ woes
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Nov 7, 2007 at 6:06pm
In his keynote speech on Wednesday morning at the Media and Money conference hosted by Dow Jones and Nielsen, former Disney CEO Michael Eisner said Apple CEO Steve Jobs, not studios, is to blame for the woes of the Writer’s Guild of America, reports CNET. The Guide is currently on strike (which Eisner said is “stupid”).
The problem, Eisner said, is that the Writer’s Guild is lobbying for a bigger cut of the profits from digital distribution—and according to the former Disney chief, those profits simply aren’t there. At the moment, digital media is too new to be profitable, he said.
Eisner said it would take about three years for web video and other forms of digital distribution to gain enough of a foothold to be profitable—and that’s when the Writer’s Guild would have a case to make, CNET reports.
“What I’m saying is for a current writer, for six thousand people to give up today’s money for a nonexistent piece today is stupid,” he said. “They can do it in three years. They shouldn’t be doing it now.” Right now, the profit from digital content is “a piece of a nonexistent flow, which won’t be nonexistent, but it will be nonexistent for the next three years.”
When it comes to Apple, Eisner said the studios “make deals with Steve Jobs, who takes them to the cleaners. They make all these kinds of things, and who’s making money? Apple! They should get a piece of Apple. If I was a union, I’d be striking up wherever he is.”
brett_x Says:
There’s a reason he’s the “former” CEO.
Posted on November 07, 2007
brett_x Says:
.... So my question is (after reading the full article): Why are the studios worried about sharing “nonexistent” profits? If the profit isn’t there, they can’t share it, right? But that doesn’t mean that the writers should wait for a revenue stream to start before putting it in their contract. They know there will be money there some day, and want their share of it when it gets going.
Posted on November 07, 2007
drwam Says:
Eisener is the ideal CEO for the 1980’s. Time marches on, Mikey.
Posted on November 07, 2007
Doug Weiner Says:
The problem in one word is DVD. The same unprofitable new media complaint was stated in the 1988 negotiation. In the end producers never gave residuals for DVD sales and now by some estimates, DVD sales account for about 60% of the studios revenue. Over the 20 years from 1988, DVD sales have totaled approximately about 100 billion dollars. Thats a lot of sales of “reshowing” of writer work. If these shows were ‘reshown’ on network TV or cable, residuals would have to be paid to writers. However, the distribution channel obviously has changed greatly, but the contract with the WGA was never amended or back dated to account for these additional “reshowings” Hence, no one is buying the studios cry for poverty. Although the producers/studios side has fulfilled to the letter the current contract, they have worked in slightly less than good faith in sharing the profits for the DVD versions of the “reshowing.” So , simply put, the WGA no longer buys the “no money in new media” plea and here we are today at a strike.
Just a point of view
Doug
Posted on November 08, 2007
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Contributor
Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
Deocliciano Okssipin Vieira Says:
He should have said more about.
Posted on November 07, 2007