The Colbert Report and the Daily Show has been of the air for almost two weeks now because of the writers’ strike. The problem seems to be the fact that studios aren’t willing to compensate the writers for publishing their work over non-traditional media such as the internet. This is just absolutely ridiculous, I applaud the studios for willing to explore new territory and make entertainment more available through sites such as ComedyCentral.com but there’s also a lot in it for the studios.
They get to boost their ratings since the audience of their shows will expand far beyond the normal prime time TV audience, and gain a new source of revenue through the ads hosted on their sites. When the YouTube and TiVo generation matures, they will have much higher expectations regarding the availability of TV media. These Hollywood studios are not going to let YouTube and TiVo profit off of this trend(see Youtube v Viacom), the studios have less flattering motives behind setting up video sharing sites similar to YouTube such as iFilm.com and ComedyCentral.com(owned by Viacom).
I hope it is now obvious that studios HAVE to go online or get left in the dust. These studios are doing a good thing by making their content available online but not for the reasons that they want you to believe. There’s going to be a huge market for online TV media support by ads and studios can gain to profit immensely from making this transition. I don’t see why the writers shouldn’t be promised a cut of this new source of revenue because it is a new market. The fact that the Colbert Report and the Daily Show are off air shows the importance of the writers in the media creation process(both Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart are part of the writers’ guild on strike). Many TV favorites like 24, Lost and the Simpsons will also have to go on reruns in the middle of the season if this situation does not get resolved.
All in all, I hope the studios will stop being greedy bastards and give the writers their fair share.
(In other news: Bush and Cheney are having the two best weeks of their presidential career.)