7 Comments

I realize it's all estimates, but 77.32 million subscribers and a $0.57 annual subscriber fee would be ~$40M, or am I crazy?

Expand full comment

No, you're not crazy. It was just Friday and my brain was dead. Good catch. Thanks.

Expand full comment

As a correction, it's not the same teams, despite it being in the same area, it's Buffalo, not Jersey

Expand full comment

Thanks for the correction. But as you know, all hockey looks the same to me.

Expand full comment

What the United Mine Workers won in the 1930s and '40s has been systematically attacked since then both legislatively and in state and federal courts by ever-bigger, more influential fossil fuel interests. I live & work overseas, where there is a writers union - but nothing like SAG-AFTRA, going up against Netflix, etc. (Of course, like most countries, the admittedly weaker domestic film/video market has looong been overwhelmed by US productions.) Wouldn't winning rights for creators in other countries -- challenging control there also of Netflix et. al -- put the US (labor) movement in a position of strength? (Will a new deal help SAG/AFRA establish rights for creators overseas? ) Anyway, thanks for grappling with this stuff....

Expand full comment

It's great hearing your perspective and I am always interested in hearing more about how creatives overseas are dealing with these issues. Europe is a bit of mixed bag. There are some unions that have a bit of power, but in other places like Hungary, unions are essentially outlawed by the government.

The best case scenario for workers would be for as many of the local organizations as possible to work with each other and use the U.S. gains as a target for what they would hopefully like to accomplish. All of the major global streamers are worried that whatever SAG-AFTRA accomplishes here will eventually cost them when dealing with workers in other countries.

Expand full comment

Thanks. Entertainment/Labor contracts in the EU - like everything else here - is almost certainly a patchwork quilt. Don't discount some positives to film- and video-workers, however, in the most democrat-socialist states. In Germany, for example: 1) a TV tax means a lot of state money for German/domestic production (although the hoops to get it seem daunting from the outside). To some degree, this money plays a role in drawing big-ticket US productions, and I suspect companies are obligated to hire local crews under (probably strict) labor laws; 2) funded film-makers - especially documentary makers - are paid new stipends every time their shows run on national (state-funded) German television... I'm told this is unusual elsewhere....

Expand full comment