The Chief Research Officer from Turner, Jack Wakshlag, said yesterday in New York that the strike by the Writers Guild of America will have much less impact on the cable industry, because of the nature of the content each offers viewers.
The major difference, according to Wakshlag, is cable has a much stronger focus on news, sports and movies than the major networks do.
Of course this means "unscripted," which means - no writers! I would also add that a large number of game shows are also offered on cable, although networks also have them, as well as the strength of the many popular reality shows offered which aren't affected by the strike either.
Another thing Wakshlag didn't mention is animation, which is also a strength of cable as well as the major networks ... which also isn't affected by the Guild 
walkout.
Unfortunately for the writers, the strike doesn't highlight any strengths they have, but shows the networks the way to go ahead for their strategy ... where the writers won't be able to have any significant impact in the future.
Jeff Immelt, chairman and CEO of General Electric, which owns NBC, talked about this recently.
So when you consider animation, news, reality TV, movies and sports, you have the roadmap laid out for you as to where television is going to go. Other than movies, the element tying them all together is "live" TV. Even though reality shows are recorded, it's done as it happens, and not in a scripted way, which adds the perception that it's unfolding before the eyes of the viewer.
That's why reality shows aren't recorded on DVRs as much as scripted shows, the storyline has already been communicated around the water cooler or between people working at home. Similar to live sports, most people don't want to watch a replay of something they know the results of already. The point being, reality TV is positioned in the mind of viewers as being live, even though it's taped.
For the writers to use worn out, 20th century tactics to try to squeeze more water out of a dried up river, shows that they're clueless as to what they are striking about.
Even now networks are starting to adapt to the changing market realities, and you'll see more and more live TV, animation, reality shows, sports and news than ever before. The market and running of a successful business demands it. Those types of shows also won't get residuals on the Internet, making the focus of the writers on that topic misguided as well.
There really shouldn't have been a writers strike. Where the industry is at this time makes it an irrelevancy. While they're trying to show their solidarity and strength, in reality is underscores their growing weakness and lack relevancy to television.
A certain number of good writers will always be needed, but I think their numbers are going to dwindle in a big way, at least as they relate to the old way of doing business. It was an ill-advised decision to strike at this time. Nothing they do will bring back the way the industry used to be. They're going to find that out in a big way, no matter what the outcome of the strike is.
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