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LAST THURSDAY, NORTHWESTERN ALUM AND CEO OF HBO CASEY BLOYS JOINED DEAN E. PATRICK JOHNSON FOR THE SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION’S “DIALOGUE WITH THE DEAN” SERIES, WHERE HE DELVED INTO VARIOUS ASPECTS OF THE TELEVISION INDUSTRY, INCLUDING THE RECENTLY CONCLUDED WRITERS STRIKE
[Casey Bloys] The writers’ strike was…I think everybody was happy with the result. And I would say the whole town is kind of holding its breath and hopeful.
BLOYS OFFERED AN OPTIMISTIC OUTLOOK ON HOW THE INDUSTRY WOULD DEVELOP POST-STRIKE. CITING HOW NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN THE WGA AND STUDIOS ARE GOING WELL, GIVING HOPE FOR THE INDUSTRY’S POST-STRIKE FUTURE.
[E. Patrick Johnson] How did we get here? And more importantly, how do we not end up here three years from now?
BLOYS DIAGNOSED THE STRIKES AS A SYPTOM OF A LARGER PHENOMENON WITHIN THE INDUSTRY. POINTING TO THE RISE OF STREAMING SERVICES LIKE NETFLIX AS A LARGE REASON WHY THE STRIKES TOOK PLACE.
[CB] Netflix is direct to consumers. So the system that we had built up over the last 50 years with cable companies basically selling video data, Netflix upended that. So they became not only the maker of but the distribution system so that, that changes the economics. It changes the economics a lot, but also some of the marketplace practices that Netflix started like going straight the series, not doing pilots anymore, shorter episode orders.
BLOYS ALSO COMMENTED ON HOW THE NATURE OF STREAMING HAS CHANGED THE WAY STORIES ARE TOLD ON TELEVISION.
[CB] These things, I don’t think people realized 10 years ago when Netflix really came on the scene and started spending money. If everybody’s doing 12 episodes, what becomes less popular is a network, a broadcast television which is historically 22 episodes.
HOWEVER, BLOYS ALSO ARGUED THAT LONGER TELEVISION SERIES WERE INTEGRAL TO PROVIDING WRITING JOBS AND TRAINING WRITERS.
[CB] It requires a lot of writers. And there are a lot of jobs and it trains people really well. You know, if you’re, if you’re in the middle of the season and you’re trying to write the story, you gotta get it done. There’s no, you know, you, you don’t have time and it’s a great training ground, but little by little with episode orders getting smaller and smaller, that training ground went away. So between the economics of moving from cable to streaming and the marketplace dynamics of the shows, it’s really squeezed everybody.
ALTHOUGH THE WRITERS’ STRIKES HAVE ENDED, BLOYS SAYS THAT THERE’S MORE WORK THAT NEEDS TO BE DONE WITHIN THE INDUSTRY TO PREVENT A SIMILAR INCIDENT FROM BREAKING OUT AGAIN.
[CB] I think we’re in for at least a few more years of trying to figure out what we also have now is traditional media companies trying to figure out like, ok, well, we move everything to streaming how do we make money doing that. So we have several more years of trying to figure this out. So, not that there hasn’t been less than one, but it’s not set. The industry is not settled. This is, as I said, this is one, is one symptom of disruption, but there will be more to come.
BLOYS ALSO REFLECTED BACK ON HIS CAREER AS A STUDENT AT NORTHWESTERN.
[EPJ] But you majored in economics, talk about that decision.
[audience booing]
[CB] Growing up in Bethlehem, the idea was that you would go to college and study TV. and film was just not. It just was not an option. I didn’t know anybody who worked in the television business. So it just seemed like an exotic thing, quite frankly when I was here for people from in LA, you know, they seem to understand it. They knew people but it didn’t seem like an option.
DESPITE MAJORING IN ECONOMICS, BLOYS WAS STILL PASSIONATE ABOUT WORKING IN TELEVISION ONE DAY.
[CB] I always had in my head, something that I wanted to do. So I thought economics was a sensible thing. So, you know, I’ll tell you now that my job has gotten, I would say it’s now 50% creative and 50% business.
BLOYS’S COLLEGE AND CAREER TRAJECTORY SEEMED TO RESONATE WITH SOME AUDIENCE MEMBERS. MCCORMICK SOPHOMORE LIANNE KIM SHARED SOME OF HER PERSONAL THOUGHTS.
[Lianne Kim] I think it’s like a lot of, when you’re in college you’re not exactly sure like what you want to do, like where, where you’re gonna end up and it seems like, he also was kind of just following like, what drew him and just work towards that.
KIM’S THOUGHTS ON THE UNCERTAINTY OF COLLEGE ARE CLOSELY INTERTWINED WITH HER CONTEMPLATIONS ABOUT THE FUTURE.
[LK] And I’ve been thinking a lot about my future and career. So I think it was kind of comforting to know that not everyone knows what they’re doing but you just follow what interests you, what drives you.
SCHOOL OF COMM SOPHOMORE ALUNA HERRERA ALSO SHARED HER TAKEAWAYS FROM THE EVENT.
[Aluna Herrera] I didn’t realize like all of that was, I mean, I knew the writer’s strike but I didn’t know kind of like the rest of it.
HERRERA’S SENTIMENTS WERE ECHOED BY FELLOW SCHOOL OF COMM SOPHOMORE SOFIA MIGALY.
[Sofia Migaly] I guess I didn’t realize how much everything was changing because I feel like I grew up with cable and I grew up watching the HBO channel. But then I don’t know, maybe the beginning of middle school was when streaming services got really big. So, it’s like very normal to me that we have streaming services, but I guess I didn’t realize how weird that is, how off-balance the industry is, and how the whole structure is kind of not working anymore.
FOR WNUR NEWS, I’M JESSIE CHEN.
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