Yeh it’s really not the same. It’s much worse!
No, for the writer’s guild, it’s about the same. They care less about who owns WB and more about studios consolidating which gives them more control over deals. They can say they’re going to pay writers a lower rate and if you don’t accept it, that’s two studios you can’t write for. Less competition is worse for them regardless of which two merge.
Unless you were going to say Netflix promised them fair rates, in which case I’d gesture wildly to all their price increases over the years.
Ultimately they’re just going to have AI write a lot of stuff anyway.
All studios must offer at least guild minimum rates. The issue is of consolidation.
All studios must offer at least guild minimum rates. The issue is of consolidation.
And one of the goals of consolidation, is having power leverage to lower the guild minimum rate.
Another goal is to have the leverage to force writers to live in studio owned apartments and only buy from studio own stores, only traveling or taking time off with studio approval. While speaking, writing, and acting only in a manner approved by the studio.
The real goal is slavery (of the rest of us) to the billionaires.
I would argue it’s worse (and not because of Ellison’s politics).
Paramount has far less liquidity than Netflix does, and this is going to be a lot of borrowed money. A not-insignificant portion is coming from the Saudis, and that money will have strings on the strings attached.
More broadly, it also means that WB is once again under new ownership by a parent company who took on a destabilizing amount of debt to get the deal done. That’s the same thing that happened with AT&T and then Discovery. And under Zaslav and Discovery, the job cuts have been significant.
Paramount also has a lot more redundancy built in since they basically have an identical business model and similar assets. Why do they need another Burbank lot? A bunch more shitty, unprofitable cable networks?
Definitely not the same.
