In the pipeline, Netflix has plenty of shows, like Matthew Broderick’s Painkiller, while network shows like The Good Doctor will likely suffer.
While Hollywood studios’ failure to strike a fair deal with writers and actors hasn’t caused any real pain for Netflix (yet), that’s not the case over at the platform’s broadcast network rivals.
For them, the ongoing WGA and SAG strikes represent apocalypse now: With soundstages dark, new episodes of big scripted hits like Abbott Elementary, Chicago P.D., and Ghosts will be missing from prime time this fall, replaced chiefly by reality shows, reruns, and imports from the U.K. and Canada.
“Network TV was already in a bad place, and this is going to kick it in the nuts,” says one veteran broadcast exec, who expects ratings to plunge 30 to 40 percent due to the de facto cancellation of the fall season. “Every week the strike goes on, the networks get weaker, and Netflix gets stronger.”
You would think such a prospect would send ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox parent companies scrambling back to the negotiating table to cut a deal. After all, many of the significant issues in the current impasse — streaming residuals, tiny writer rooms, short episode orders — do not impact broadcast TV.
These companies also own streamers, but unlike Netflix, those platforms are bleeding money; linear networks still turn a profit every year (though it’s far smaller than years past.) What’s more,…