East Coast Musings 4.19.09: Internet Media Musings

Posted by James Craig on 04.19.2009

With the SAG contract talks coming close to an end, and the Pirate Bay verdict in, the internet is a very interestng place for the entertainment industy at present.

The last two days have been active ones in terms of news relating to entertainment and how those in the industry are affected by how internet users make use of the medium to listen, watch, share and download files ranging from music to full length studio films. Perhaps the two biggest news makers of the week are the ruling surrounding the Pirate Bay case as well as the Screen Actors Guild giving up on on better compensation for Internet based media. Both stories appear to be wins for the studios and production companies involved as not only has the groundwork been laid in taking future action against file sharing sites, but now potentially costly compensation to the guild members for media online has been taken off of the table for the time being.

In the SAG case, some find it hard to get on the side of the guild as the faces publicly representing the guild have been your A-List Hollywood types and 9/10 would agree that they make enough money as it is. But one you take into consideration that SAG represent 120,000 members, you start to realize that there are a lot of people out there who would benefit greatly from being able earn more as their work goes online. Let's face it, the internet is the final frontier in terms of who gets to stake claims where and for what. 'Net based media has for a long time been the garnish to the "mainstream's" entree in terms of what is offered and how much, in anything it would cost. Now with the accessibility of 'net based media becoming that much easy as we're able to stream and download at much higher speeds than even 3 years ago, the final frontier is quickly filling up with people trying to stake their claim as well as testing the boundaries of what is acceptable. As this wave grows and grows, you notice networks and studios offering more and more programming a media online that wasn't available a few short years ago. It only makes sense that there would be compensation for work being used online to promote prime time television, or even to offer an alternative for viewing. The same can be said, as the internet has proven to be fertile ground for the promoting and growth of feature film projects of any size and type.

With the growth of the medium, those who are contributing to the growth and profitability of the companies placing their product online should only naturally feel entitled to compensation. The problem, as I see it, and I may be completely off here, but the 'net seems to be a grey area in terms of being able to accurately track the impact of 'net based media to the overall bottom line for a television series or a film. Obviously, studios and networks know that using the 'net helps, they wouldn't spend millions on 'net based ad campaigns if it didn't, but as with any old boys club, it will only be when they are smacked hard, repeatedly over the head with hard numbers in favor of the workers that any real movement will be made in terms of compensation. The reality is, however, that this is only a temporary setback for SAG, as this new contract will expire in roughly mid 2011. That gives 2 solid years for both sides to try and build their case, but the numbers are certainly going to start giving favor to the arguments put forth by SAG.

The other "big" win for studios and production companies can with the Pirate Bay founders being found guilty of breaching copyright law in Sweden. It seems to pave the way for larger actions being taken against sites that would offer free streaming and downloading of media. What started out as a small leak with Napster 9 years ago has slowly turned into a flood of sites doing exactly what Napster did and more. Since the "death" of Napster the file sharing community has proved to be very much like a hydra of Greek mythology. With every leading site taken on and defeated, 2 more rise to take its' place. As a result, this phenomena has been blamed for the steady decline of the film and music industries. It seems like an easy out for the big wigs as they can blame a faceless enemy and go from there raising prices and the like, all the while pointing to the internet and saying, "There's why folks." With this action there comes the re-action, each time the backlash seems more vocal, saying that if prices keep going up, then downloads and free file sharing sites will as well. Then along comes the streaming media sites to offer yet another avenue to see your favorite show anytime you like for free. I can see how this would put studios in an uproar as they aren't getting the revenue from a film that they would like if x % of the potential audience is simply going to hunker down in front of the PC or laptop and watch it for free. Look at the re-action from 20th Century Fox had to the leak of the incomplete Wolverine movie a couple weeks back. It was massive, as this was going to be one of the studios BIG releases for the summer season. With hundreds of thousands of downloads, the possible damage done to the box office could be huge.

There is a problem and that is where the two stories curve back onto each other, there is no real, definite, final firm way to judge the total damage that streaming does to a films gross and the opposite is true as well. You can survey and poll people until the cows come home, but in the end, there just isn't a way to offer numbers that can be counted on to mean anything at this point in time. This is a case of one side pointing at the other throwing blame and having the same done right back. Lost in the shuffle of the big business are the smaller players in all of this where any loss of revenue could mean considerable harm. It is these people that are the ones who are getting hurt as the two big kids on the block knock each other around, only paying lip service to those that caught up in the middle and end up as collateral damage. It is hard to take one side or another, and it ends up being just shades of grey as you delve deeper into both issues and wtach as they blend into each other. You want to support the little guy in this fight, but to do so, you need to actually do more business with the big guy so that there are real, substantial numbers for the little guys to work with. All the while, there is an ease and convenience to using free streaming, sharing and torrent sites that take away from both sides and lend to the problem. It will be interesting to see how appeals go in the Pirate Bay case, as it will give a clearer idea as to how the entertainment industry will be able to proceed in future actions and it will also be interesting to see how things go in 2011 for SAG and the other guilds. This already is big news and has been, but it's going to only get bigger and it may be sooner than later.