The effects of online video on Hollywood writers

American television programming took a dramatic turn with the introduction of reality shows to US markets. Couple that with the ubiquitous availability of broadband Internet access and WiFi hot spots sprouting up just about everywhere, it is no surprise that production companies don’t seem to be in much of a hurry to end this strike.

Interestingly enough, earlier this month a report was published by Nielsen Online indicated that some online video sites have doubled their audience since the strike began.

Duncan Riley summed it up quite well in this TechCrunch post from January 10th…

…where he quoted stats from Nielsen and Pew Internet & American Life Project which indicated [to me at least] that Americans don’t really seem to be missing the efforts of Hollywood’s striking writers. Having a variety of online alternatives to TV to turn to certainly isn’t helping them.

If I had to guess, this strike will likely run into this Summer and possibly beyond. Fortunately we all have places like YouTube, Veoh, Stickam and LiveLeek to focus our minds when we are tired of thinking for ourselves.