Commentary

Data Transparency Not Just For Advertisers: Writers, Actors Want The Same

by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, August 28, 2023

It's not only advertisers desiring better visibility to one key piece of the media puzzle -- even actors and screenwriters want more transparency when it comes to streaming TV and other data.

This is now a negotiating point that studios are offering actors/screenwriters as part of the jostling over the more important pay/salary/residual situation.

What might that data concession be? Deeper streaming TV viewing and engagement numbers -- including typical stuff -- TV show viewer data, as well as viewer/demographic breakdowns, that is available for legacy TV platforms.

Perhaps adding even more specific first-party data coming from consumers using those individual streaming platforms.

The movie/TV producer group, The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), offered the writers union -- the Writers Guild of America (WGA) -- this in addition to a compounded 13% pay increase over the three-year contract. This comes along with a concession that AI-generated written content will not be considered "literary material."

In addition, the producers group will also provide -- by way of their owned streaming platforms -- the total number of hours viewed for each made-for-streaming show.

This granular data is important -- for studios. It would explain to writers (and actors) -- much to their chagrin -- why specific current residual payments in checks can total under one dollar.

The difference here is what is available -- mostly publicly, with easy access -- to that of traditional TV ratings/viewership Nielsen has been releasing for decades when it comes to TV network programming.

With this current data, actors and writers can determine the overall success of a TV show. In turn, this sets the foundation for negotiating their next projects.

For example, CBS “NCIS” gets around 10 million viewers average minute Nielsen-measured viewers, regularly taking the position as the top scripted broadcast prime-time show. Writers, actors, and producers strike deals with regard to that value.

Right now there are no similar measures when it comes to streaming platforms -- especially in terms of an industry-wide acceptable “currency” coming from an impartial third-party measurement company.

Entertainment studios figure that more transparency -- even if it is just a small piece of data from their own streaming platforms -- would reveal what they are really up against.