RSSHollywood Wants Cut of iTunes TV Sales
By Ed Oswald | Published October 17, 2005, 11:03 AM
Five Hollywood unions on Friday publicly called for negotiations on revenue sharing for TV shows that are sold through the iTunes Music Store.
In a statement aimed at the television shows' producers, the group said it looks "forward to a dialogue that ensures that our members are properly compensated for this exploitation of their work." The group claims that they were never informed of the deal until they learned of it through the media.
The unions involved include the Writers Guild of America West, and the Writers Guild of America East which are separate entities; the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the Screen Actors Guild, and the Directors Guild of America.
The group has not contacted ABC and Walt Disney, the first studio to provide its content through iTunes, although ABC said in a statement that they "welcome a dialogue" with the unions on the issue of revenue sharing.
Currently, the unions have a contract that gives writers 1.6 percent and actors 3.6 percent of the license fees paid to producers of a show. The groups also has provisions in their contracts for work rebroadcast on the Internet.
The unions stressed that they have no problem with the technology itself, but are merely looking for compensation.
"As the representatives for the creative community we embrace new technologies that expand distribution of material featuring the work of our members," the group said.
Why not just get a Dish Network / Archos PocketDish unit instead and watch what you want to on your portable media player instead of paying $1.99 for each show?
More details on the PocketDish can be found at http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=88958 or pocketdish.com
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|How did they negotiate, and get a deal done while skirting all these people? Can we answer why they were able to do that before we flame an pwnz0rz!!1 please?
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|Something off your back? Hello? They deserve the money....they're entitled to it. And it TOTALLY surprises me that they were completely left out of it. Cuz you know....the actors of alias? They don't adlib. Their scripts came from somewhere, and those people deserve a part of the success. If you're going to use someone's work, pay them for it. I find it interesting that they go after people who download their stuff, but then they sell it online and don't even pay their people. Such is life.
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|You miss the point Shicaca; clearly, Betanews doesn't have the same resources as BBC Online. However, the bottom line is that if you're going to re-work / use some of another writer's material the least you can do is source it to them.
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|andy.d: Your point is?
I don't look at the UK BBC site, so it benefits me in a big way.
Also you can only have ORIGINAL quotes if you had a person there talking to the people involved. I'm sure BetaNews doesn't have hundreds of reporters like the UK BBC site does, nor does it have the resources available to do so.
In short stop being such a baby and get over it. If you don't like BetaNews, don't read it... it's that simple.
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|Wow, you just stole all of the quotes and facts from the BBC.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/...v_and_radio/4348816.stm
BetaNews does this quite a bit. It's not very classy.
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|Actually, these were facts and statements made to the public media. The BBC did not get them exclusively.
Here are a few more stories with the same facts/quotes:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/...7/tc_nm/writers_ipod_dc
http://news.yahoo.com/s/...hi_te/video_ipod_unions
In the future, please check your facts before flaming.
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|Yea they are called press releases, and news companies across the world use them. If you read Yahoo, CNN, and MSN every day you would find the same thing.
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|"In the future, please check your facts before flaming."
LMAO we've got mr perfect here. I can stand for being corrected, as we all are not 100% correct all the time, but jeesh. If you know more about something, that doesn't make you a better person. It makes you a better person to share this info w/o degrading someone else.
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|Everyone is always so greedy. Just because you have something sucessful going, people always want something off your back in order to "cash in".
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|Uh, yeah. You say that like you wouldn't be pissed if someone was making money off of YOUR work and you weren't getting anything from it. I am sure if the shoe was on the other foot, you'd be just as 'greedy'.
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|Not really, hollywood makes enough money off their films. Do you think they share? Actors/Actresses make a few million, but its nothing in comparison to what the film REALLY makes. iTunes is turning out to be a successful venture, and hollywood wants to cash in. If I wanted to start my own film online setup, I don't think hollywood would be calling on my door, UNLESS I had a big name like iTunes..
Hollywood expects it to explode, and they want a cut. Just like he said, they are greedy bas****s. They don't share their wealth, but they will be damned if you profit from them.
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|"Currently, the unions have a contract that gives writers 1.6 percent and actors 3.6 percent of the license fees paid to producers of a show. The groups also has provisions in their contracts for work rebroadcast on the Internet."
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|The unions (and I use the term extremely loosely) should just be thankful that anyone is watching that stuff. They need to wake up and see that many people find that watching The Weather Channel is more entertaining. It does appear (as stated in the article) that the actors are being exploited, but it is the unions to whom they pay their dues, that are exploiting them and getting rich off of their performing talents.
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|"The Weather Channel is more entertaining"
Isn't that the truth.
THAT is why I won't get more than the basic local stations from my cable company.
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