Tangentially related, actors share their residual checks:
https://www.npr.org/2023/07/27/11903...-sag-aftra-wga
The existing residuals for streaming are pathetic. If a streaming service can't survive paying more than mere pennies for residuals, then it doesn't deserve to survive.

What could be the reason for a negative check? overpayment?

Probably charged them for postage to mail the check. I'm only half-kidding.

I have no idea if this is true, but I saw this on Reddit:

Seventeen years and four months. Not quite twenty.

Came out at the end of March 31, 2006; discontinued March 28, 2008.

And, considering how many HD-DVDs rotted in short order, it's for the best that it died a quick death.

I wonder how much it costs them to cut all of these penny checks. Wouldn't surprise me at all if they're paying ten dollars or more to send someone a royalty check for a penny.

Twitter

I still have a brand new Toshiba A3 sealed in the box with two HD-DVDs inside. It was a backup player.

Yeah really. Everytime I pull out a HD-DVD to watch (granted, this doesn't happen often), I'm surprised if it still plays all the way through (I watched The Thing the other day and that one is still good). I should just throw out the combo ones, zero chance of those ones still working.

I have two A3s, one barely used, I just bought the second one because it was dirt cheap. No idea if that one still works though.

Well it's a good thing I never got into HD-DVD then. I have all my shows and favorite films on Streaming Services that I can watch forever without worry about Rot, Scratches, or Storage....

Until they're pulled, that is.

Unfortunately true. Anything I can currently watch on streaming I don't assume will always be there, same with music.

Or in their original form, uncut, digitally altered, sound mix butchering, etc.

She received $250k an episode for the final season of THIS IS US. I'm sure she's hurting real bad AFAIK, reading that article, it doesn't mention what show she received the residual check from, as she was in a lot of things. What if it was for an episode of The Andy Dick show from 2001 that aired in some random Country at 2am? How much should she receive for that?

Residuals are getting tougher and tougher and cable networks are no longer really buying TV shows anymore as they all got out of original programming so they just air Law and Order, TBBT, etc. over and over. DVD and Blu-ray sales fell off a cliff. Lots of times those shows would be sold to foreign territories but now they produce their own content. The whole syndication game is gone. Cable networks banked money on assumed ratings for those shows, and paid appropriately. When they failed, the shows were pulled fast (Friday Night Lights, as an example, lasted a few weeks before it was yanked)

How much should she get from a show streaming? You pay $15 to Netflix and you watch 100 episodes of SUITS, how do you split up that money between a dozen main cast members and thousands of guests and small time actors? How far does your $15 go? I'm sure more transparent viewing data would be nice, but what about those who watch 2 minutes and opt out. Do they get the full pay? If I was a guest actor on Season 5 episode 2, and 1,000 people watched it on the month of July, how much do you think I should get as a residual?

All of mine are in a big Costco tub which I have not really gone though in some time. I would wager 95% of them I would watch I could simply just stream in similar or better quality at this point so it's really not that much of a concern. We are also forgetting how many Blu-ray discs also failed in the early times, including precious Criterion, but its easier to just ignore that and hate on HD DVD instead :roll eyes:

From what I read, The last strike ended 10 days after this issue happened. Lots of writers were ready to start scabbing and the Union was having a real issue on their hands so things got settled pretty quick. We now live in a time where housing and food is far more expensive, so they may do a similar thing if things get real bad. Next week is going to be a real bloodbath and we might even see some cancellations for shows partially filmed/in production, sort of like with COVID. Hopefully they can resolve everything in the next few months so this doesn't stretch into the Holidays when the studios typically go dark. That would be REALLY bad (not to forget everyone else behind the line who have been out of work for months as well, the people no one seems to care about and the business affected by this).

The studios certainly don’t, yet you continue to take their side over the writers.

The studios did not call for a strike, the unions did.

You can agree or disagree with anything I can type, but it does not change the facts that the unions voted and called for a strike.

The studios are the rich and the union is composed of the people that actually makes the products that make the studio money. It's easy to pick a side in this one. I hope the creators get most of the money. The talentless can consider themselves fortunate to make a good living off of the backs of others.

And who are the unions? The writers are and the unions represent them and act in their interest. It's not the corporation SAG v. film studios. You try to make unions into some kind of independet entity doing what they want. That's not the case. The employees have a problem with their employers and so they united to have a stronger voice.
You may disagree with single demands, but putting the whole agenda of unions in question only shows that you're not only ignorant to the present, but to the past. Without unions hard labor would still just be a fast way to dying early.

The studios will use this strike as an excuse to cancel many projects they didn't think were working in development.

The “unions” are the writers. And the other unions involved in the industry support them, just like the writers would support them if those other unions went on strike.

You’re literally on the side of big studio corporations over working-class people.

Gizmo is constantly trying to victimize the crew of film/TV productions, and place the blame of the work stoppage entirely on the unions for striking, instead of the studios refusing to negotiate fairly and forcing a strike. Of course, he doesn't care that this argument has been shown to be wrong, over and over again. He doesn't care that the crew support both the actors and writers strikes, because that doesn't help his narrative. I also doubt he's contributed anything personally to help out these people he's supposedly concerned with.

To wit, the Entertainment Community Fund takes donations that they then give as assistance to eligible entertainment workers, including crew:
https://entertainmentcommunity.org/h...-work-stoppage

But he doesn't actually care, he's exploiting them in a way they don't even agree with to make a weak-ass argument in favor of studio exploitation.

Way to cherry pick from the half dozen examples from that article. But actually, this helps my argument more than yours, since it shows the disparity between network and streaming. Do you honestly think a show that was worth paying Mandy Moore $250k an episode for first airing and a few reruns on network TV is suddenly only able to pay out pennies for streaming? From what I could find, Hulu paid a massive $3.5M per episode for U.S. streaming rights to 'This Is Us', outbidding Netflix:
https://www.streamtvinsider.com/onli...g-rights-to-us

Do you think Mandy Moore only deserves 81 cents of that $3.5 million?

AFAIK, reading that article, it doesn't mention what show she received the residual check from, as she was in a lot of things. What if it was for an episode of The Andy Dick show from 2001 that aired in some random Country at 2am? How much should she receive for that?[/quote]
Tracing back to the source article, it explicitly says it was residuals for This is Us:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv...ke-1235538930/

You picked a poor show as an example because Suits is doing extremely well on streaming right now:
https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/sui...ar-1235675548/

Also, do you really think streaming services like Netflix don't know how much a show is earning them? They pay millions for rights, and have recently been dropping underperforming shows left-and-right. This whole "oh it's too hard to calculate revenue" argument is BS. It's not something us laypeople can just drop into a simple formula, but it's a lie to suggest the streaming services can't calculate it.

Not to mention the writers and actors aren't asking for revenue sharing, they're asking for residuals, which are a known upfront cost. This means, when a studio licenses a show to a streaming service, they know exactly how much they have to license it for to, at least, break even, and they're often licensing for WAY about that, even on the new residual terms. As I've stated before, this isn't remotely a "studios will go broke and won't be able to afford to produce any shows" situation even if they met all the demands. It's more of a "studios won't be able to report as insane profits as previously for streaming shows," and maybe "streaming services cut back on the number of films/shows they order to something sane."

Yes, that will happen next week. Lots of bad decisions will be cancelled and many expecting a huge payday for a likely flop will be upset.