The rise of streaming television, led by Netflix, gave top TV studios a robust new revenue stream, as serialized dramas that were previously hard to sell suddenly became the hottest properties in town and even well-worn sitcoms—such as Warner Bros.’ Friends and Sony Pictures Television’s Seinfeld —discovered highly motivated new buyers. Since then, Hulu and Amazon also have grown and many networks offer their own streaming services.

That’s been a huge profit boon for programming providers, but now a conflict is growing between the studios that produce the shows, the networks that license and air them and the creators and talent that create and star in them, according to The Wall Street Journal. Where and how shows get sold means different levels of revenue for all of the profit participants. In particular, studios and talent seem worried about how shows are being sold to streaming service Hulu, which is co-owned by Disney-ABC, 21st Century Fox and Comcast NBC Universal. Those three owners also own broadcast networks ABC, Fox and NBC as well as many cable networks and other services between them.

For example, the creators of Showtime’s Homeland don’t get a cut of the profits from Showtime’s Hulu channel, reports the Journal, but they do get a cut when the show is sold to other providers, such as Netflix. That disparity is a problem for showrunners, producers, agents and talent who want to earn the highest possible amount on programming they produce.

Networks, on the other hand, want to pay the least possible for programming but get the most out of it. When studios own both networks and streaming services, the result is a natural conflict of interest. Producers and talent worry that they are leaving money on the table when shows go to the networks’ co-owned services instead of to the open market.

Brief Take: This could be the first warning sign of a larger battle to come. In 2007, television writers went on strike because they didn’t feel they were being adequately compensated when shows were sold to digital outlets. This is a similar issue.

Read more at The Wall Street Journal

[Cube image courtesy of Showtime/Stephan Rabold.]

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