Around the Net

Networks Make Contingency Plans In Case of Strike

  • Variety, Wednesday, June 18, 2008 10:15 AM

The threat of a work stoppage by actors has studios and nets worried. They are putting the brakes on production starts for features and TV pilots for fear that the Screen Actors Guild will call a strike following the June 30 expiration date of its feature-prime time deal.

The next batch of features, including "2012," "Prince of Persia" and "Nottingham," won't start until late summer as a hedge against the labor strife likely to play out in July. The key date for studio decision-making has now become July 7, when AFTRA should announce the results of its ratification vote on its primetime deal.

The landscape is also unsettled in TV. Ironically, the writers strike may have helped the nets' contingency plans for a potential SAG strike because some TV shows weren't brought back in midseason, giving the nets and studios a jump on fall.

advertisement

advertisement

Read the whole story at Variety »

Next story loading loading..