Writers: Cutting Off Their Noses to Spite Their Faces?

The writers strike is entering its third month and although there appears to be a tentative deal reached, has too much damage been done?

I support the better distribution of wealth in the writing community; after all it's better for economies and societies if tens of millions of dollars in revenue filters to the bank accounts and families of writers instead of being reserved for the pockets of a select few studio heads.

The problem with this strike is there could be long term ramifications for such extended picket lines because of new media like YouTube, online sharing communities, movie pirating, pay per view channels, 24 hour news cycles and proliferation of alternative entertainments like blogs, it is going to be very difficult to lure viewers back to television sitcoms and half hour comedies or weekly dramas.

This strike threatens to lose viewers permanently to the myriad of other entertainment available to people in the market.

Holding the attention of a fickle public is difficult in the best of circumstances but, when new habits have been formed, notably the habit of not watching television and not tuning into the networks nightly line up of shows, it is going to be a challenge to convince views its time to change their habits yet again, only this time back to the boob tube.

How permanent do you think the damage will be to television shows because of the writers strike?

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