A proliferation of “mini rooms” was a key stumbling block to resolving the 2023 Writers Guild of America work stoppage and the brand new three-year deal included minimal staffing necessities to finish the Hollywood writers strike.
However the Canadian TV business apparently hasn’t received the memo about new writers rooms staffing minimums, judging by the Writers Guild of Canada’s newest fairness, variety and inclusion report. The 2024 version factors to a first-ever decline within the variety of TV episodes ordered by Canadian-based linear TV and streaming platforms, and so work for WGC members.
And a unbroken use of mini rooms north of the border, the place small author groups pump out full dimension TV sequence, is partly guilty. “This statistic, together with a gradual decline within the variety of WGC members engaged on Canadian TV sequence, are the results of the contraction of the Canadian home audiovisual sector and the adoption of dangerous business practices reminiscent of ‘mini-rooms,’ the WGC report acknowledged.
Current Canadian TV sequence launches embody International TV’s Homicide in a Small City, a mystery-drama that stars Rossif Sutherland and Kristin Kreuk and was picked up by Fox for the U.S. market, and Little Hen, an indigenous drama that aired on Crave in Canada and PBS stateside.
In the course of the now-ended peak TV increase, a low Canadian greenback in comparison with the U.S. dollar, beneficiant tax credit and rising demand for unique content material by U.S. streaming platforms had TV manufacturing in Toronto, Vancouver and different home hubs at a document tempo.
However with home promoting {dollars} transferring from native linear TV broadcasters to streaming and different digital platforms, Canadian content material manufacturing has slowed as native TV networks pull again on their spending.
And as in Hollywood, Canadian broadcasters and streamers are more and more handing out straight-to-series orders for homegrown TV exhibits, versus the standard pilot growth course of with bigger writers rooms. The most recent 2024 WGC report lined 76 home sequence — 53 live-action and 23 animation — that have been produced in 2023, on high of one other 372 sequence lined within the interval from 2019 to 2022.
“The sequence lined on this yr’s report engaged much less writers than ever earlier than. In contrast with 2016, the variety of WGC members engaged on Canadian TV decreased by 11 %,” the Canadian writers guild reported.
The WGC argued declining alternatives for its members impacts their capability to enter and keep within the Canadian TV business. That’s particularly as various Canadian writers from underrepresented communities look to transcend entry-level writers room assignments like story editors to turning into showrunners.
For that, rising writers want time on TV units to find out about pre-production duties, working with TV community execs on set and post-production. “Work alternatives have elevated for various writers, however positions on the high stay elusive,” the WGC report warned.