Friday, August 18, 2006

NBC Fighting With Unions Over Webisodes

NBC has filed a complaint because it thinks showrunners for hits like "The Office" and "Battlestar: Galactica" have to provide extra content for "webisodes" to shown online and on cell phones, etc. At the same time, they and other networks will fight tooth and nail to keep their talent from making any money from the numerous new revenue streams they've discovered by replaying shows online (with new ads), even though this could cutn into syndication and DVD sales down the road. Why can't they get extra stuff for free? The same thing happened with DVDs. At first, everyone was glad to provide audio commentary and other extras. But eventually, they realized this was a massive new revenue stream and their efforts deserved to be rewarded. You want artists to provide a bunch of new material -- you gotta pay for it.

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