CEO’S CORNER The Screen Writers

The television and movie industries have been completely transformed by technological advancement in the 16 years since the last strike in the entertainment industry. The most recent Hollywood strike occurred 16 years ago, before the internet had completely changed the television and film industries. Massive audiences were still attracted to broadcast networks, while cable channels continued to expand. For movie studios, the superhero boom had already started, and DVD sales accounted for $16 billion in annual revenue.

Since then, Hollywood has undergone an upheaval that few could have predicted due to galloping technological progress. The popularity of traditional television is critically ill. Movie companies have largely turned to franchise spectacles after being hurt by disappointing box office results for comedies and dramas. The DVD industry is over; on September 1, Netflix will begin shipping its final tiny silver discs. The world now is one of streaming. The epidemic accelerated the change.

What remains largely unchanged? the formulae that studios employ to compensate writers and directors of television and film, paving the way for another strike. The founder of the research company LightShed Partners, Rich Greenfield, stated that "writer compensation needs to evolve for a streaming-first world."

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In the absence of an implausible last-minute agreement with studios, more than 11,000 unionized screenwriters may strike on Tuesday in Los Angeles and New York. Depending on how long the strike lasts, this may gradually halt Hollywood's creative production lines. Leaders of the Writers Guild of America have referred to this as a "existential" moment, arguing that compensation has stagnated despite the abundance of content in the age of streaming.to the point where even authors with extensive experience struggle to advance and, occasionally, make ends meet.

"Writers at every level and in every genre, whether it's features or TV, whether it's features or TV, we're all being devalued and financially taken advantage of by the studios," said Danny Tolli, a writer whose credits include "Roswell, New Mexico" and the Shondaland drama "The Catch."