Business Affairs Exec: A Studio Negotiator Responds to the WGA Deal
What writers can expect now from the other side, who really won on what points, and what it means for the future volume of shows
A well-known senior business affairs exec, whose previous pieces for The Ankler include Confessions of a Business Affairs Exec and How to Truly Preserve the Writers’ Room, is back to offer his final commentary on the WGA strike, and what it accomplished. This person is anonymous as they are not authorized to speak by their employer.
Last week, the whole of Hollywood breathed a sigh of relief — relief from anxiety, and relief from annoyance — as the 2023 WGA strike, the second longest in history, finally drew to a close.
Personally, I celebrated the deal the only way I could after months of compulsively discussing, reading about, and thinking about the WGA strike — by taking one whole day off from discussing, reading about, or thinking about it in any meaningful way, even if that day happened to be the day on which the long-awaited final deal terms were revealed.
Now that we’ve all had a few days to digest, I wanted to come back with one last round of commentary to offer my take, as a negotiator, on three of the big picture questions people are asking about everything we just lived through (and while I’m here, some predictions of how the new deal will and won’t impact the industry in the years to come). Those big questions: