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Striking authors accuse Disney, Amazon, and Netflix of antitrust violations
The Writers Guild of America (WGA) went on strike on Thursday, urging federal authorities to strengthen regulation of the streaming media industry, claiming that Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS), Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), and Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) had gained far too much influence.
The guild, which has been on strike since May 2, released a report claiming that the three firms were prepared to become "the new gatekeepers of media" and that they had exploited their positions "to further disadvantage competitors, raise prices for consumers, and push down wages for the creative workforce."
The union encouraged regulators to prevent future industry consolidation, to "proactively investigate anti-competitive issues and outcomes," and to improve regulation and monitoring of the streaming sector.
Disney, Amazon, and Netflix representatives did not immediately reply to calls for comment.
A spokesman for the Federal Trade Commission referred to Chair Linda Khan's recent statements on a podcast.
"The combination of this consolidation and vertical integration appears to have created a market structure in which writers, producers, and showrunners are all making less, even as companies charge customers more." "And critics appear to be claiming that the quality of content being produced is actually declining," Khan said on The Ankler podcast.
"So, increasingly, we see some of the red flags that suggest the market structure is not actually serving the creators or the ultimate viewers," Khan added.
In discussions with Hollywood studios, the WGA's roughly 11,500 members have demanded increased pay, staffing assurances, and restrictions around the use of artificial intelligence (AI), among other things. The SAG-AFTRA actors union, which went on strike on July 14, is also demanding a raise in basic pay and residuals.
WGA and studio officials recently returned to the negotiation table, but no agreement has been reached.
Other firms that offer streaming media alternatives, such as Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), and Warner Bros Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD), were not mentioned in the WGA letter.
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