Income

• And some of the gains actors made through prior labor struggles – particularly through residuals, which are a small percentage of shared earnings from film or television – have vanished.
• Though the Writers Guild of America ended its strike on Sept. 27, 2023, actors represented by SAG-AFTRA remain on strike.
• Residuals are one of their main sticking points: They want to receive 2% of revenue generated by shows they appear in on streaming platforms.

The pandemic revealed a glimpse of the future

• The extent to which streaming changed the entertainment landscape came into focus during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• For the made-to-be-blockbuster “Black Widow,” Disney decided to release the film simultaneously in theaters and on its propriety streaming service, Disney+, for US$30.
• At $30, the price to stream “Black Widow” on television was equivalent to roughly three theater tickets.

A struggle for dignity

• The Hollywood studio system of the 1930s and 1940s was an era of vertical integration in the film industry.
• The “Big Five” major studios – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Warner Bros., Paramount, 20th Century Fox and RKO – employed directors, writers, actors and camera operators.
• This created an efficient system that allowed for assembly-linelike production of films, not unlike Ford automotive factories.
• Actors – just like everyone else employed by the studios – received a salary for the length of their contracts.

Getting a slice of streaming revenue

• Examples include foreign box office revenue, DVD sales, syndicated television shows and theater releases that appear on television.
• In the streaming era, all new shows produced by streaming platforms are concurrently reruns and original runs.
• Actors want 2% of streaming revenue generated by the show or film to replace this line of income.
• Data on earnings tied to streams aren’t as clear as ticket sales or advertising revenue, and streaming platforms tend to keep this information in-house.

Closing the loophole

• In this sense, it harks back to the old studio system of the 1930s and 1940s.
• For this reason, there is no benefit for studios and platforms to offer actors revenue for every stream, because technically there is no secondary market.
• This is the loophole striking actors are looking to close.

• Meta’s blocking of Canadian news on its social media sites, Facebook and Instagram, poses serious problems for Canadian media.
• Outlets that rely on social media to reach their target audiences will likely struggle to get by.
• Add this conundrum to the over-reliance on American telecommunications services, and the need to rethink funding Canadian communication is urgent.

Trickle-down funding just doesn’t work

• Some outlets will no doubt suffer as a result of U.S. tech companies blocking Canadian news.
• Yet, Canadian authorities are sticking to a funding model that relies on dwindling cable TV subscribers.
• Funding from commercial Canadian cable companies trickles down to fund the alert system.
• This fall could put funding for the emergency alert system in jeopardy.

Two lessons for Canadians

• In order to fix these problems, Canadians must bear in mind two lessons about how not to construct communication systems.
• Lesson one: Do not rely on American media and communication infrastructure to protect the interests of Canadians.
• Ensuring safety and services to Canadians is not the priority.
• Lesson two: Do not rely on ever-changing elected leaders or ever-changing commercial communication services to provide stable support for media that serves the needs of all Canadians.
• Statistics Canada reports that Canadians are not prepared for the next pandemic, flood or wildfire.

An independent an well-funded media

• Canadian media and telecommunications services must not be dependent on either U.S. or Canadian commercial interests or Canadian politicians.
• Canadian public service media should be required to provide services beyond the broadcasting technology of the 20th century.
• The old promises of the CBC have not been met, and warnings about reforming Canadian media have been largely ignored.
• The damage to Canadian media caused by social media extortion and the loss of cable TV revenue makes it clear that the time for piecemeal reform has passed.