19 Comments
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Talli Buchanan's avatar

I actually love Mark’s idea about residuals. I hesitated to say anything, but I kind of get what the streamers are saying. They can’t put a monetary value on views. Just because someone watches your show doesn’t mean that translates to a specific amount of revenue for them. There’s the occasional person who signs up to watch Stranger Things, then cancels when they’re done. But a view doesn’t translate to a specific amount of revenue for them.

But if all streamers had to pay a percentage of their subscription fees maybe paired with a percentage of the licensing contracts for older shows, and maybe if they also handed over their streaming numbers the WGA/SAG-AFTRA could disperse appropriately. Like, your show accounted for 10% of the viewing time, so that show gets 10% of the residuals, dispersed based on billing.

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Caissie St.Onge's avatar

It actually depends on the streamer, because if the streamer has ads (which many do), then a very specific dollar value is assigned to each view, via the formula of how much the advertiser is paying to appear in front of a viewer's eyeballs every time. Currently, all of that ad money goes to the studio & none goes to the writers or performers who made the show. This is opposite of how it works on network & union cable TV.

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Talli Buchanan's avatar

Oh yeah, definitely. Ad-based streamers can easily dole out the appropriate residuals. But the streamers that are making the most noise about this (mostly Netflix) are primarily subscription based.

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Caissie St.Onge's avatar

And Netflix is considering adding ads, I have heard. As well as bumping up subscription prices multiple times. They have long been overspending without any transparency in the space & they would have done better to figure out a feasible business plan from the jump that didn't lean quite so heavily on free labor from artists. Hope they get it together!

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Talli Buchanan's avatar

Netflix actually has a basic ads plan, but it’s not the one most people go for. I could see them trying to force people into an ads plan by making the price of the subscription plan prohibitive. I actually don’t mind ads, I just hate that it’s usually the same as every time.

WGA and SAG definitely need to negotiate separate and comprehensive residual plans for ad based and subscription viewing. Because if they don’t, the streamers will just go with whatever plan costs them the least in residuals.

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Caissie St.Onge's avatar

I love ads, LOL! I know that's not common, but it's the way my brain is built, I guess.

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Meadow's avatar

RAThletic Greens 😂

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Caissie St.Onge's avatar

No...

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Jenny Pennington's avatar

Has anyone tried to use the MixHers promo code yet? I keep getting an error!

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Caissie St.Onge's avatar

I will let them know! Thanks for letting us know!

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Connie's avatar

Again.... Busy expressed my fears, and Caissie you were the voice of calm reason! ❤️ And I loved Heather’s drink in the face story! (Or I should say, not getting the drink in the face!)

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Total Infernal Reflection's avatar

I was listening to a podcast That explained that in the past newspapers, only needed the front page to have the most hyperbolic and eye-catching headlines. You had the rest of the paper and you would read the rest of it so I could just give you information after that. But now every article has to fend for itself because we don’t buy and read a whole newspaper. Each has to be its own its front page. There has been a marked increase in the hysteria of the titles for each piece you might encounter.

Which also lends to our constant ragged edge nerves about everything.

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Alexia Hemingway's avatar

Heather Morris rules! Her comedic timing on Glee was the best! I loved her and Naya!

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Caissie St.Onge's avatar

💜💜💜

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Mandy Hazen's avatar

I’m also interested in any reviews of the video game prescription!

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Lauren's avatar

I'm pretty sure you can talk about movies you saw. Or every other pop culture podcast I listen to that are hosted by union members are scabs 😂. No but I'm pretty sure you're allowed to anecdotally discuss film and TV, just not promote your work.

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Kimberle Brown's avatar

Sinead 💗

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Liza's avatar

“Thousands of Minion memes.” 🤓

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Diane  Macias's avatar

It was “stuck in a minion hole” that broke me.

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