Stateside writers’ strike slow to hit AFN

Sean Suttell, a controller, monitors U.S. TV and radio programming feeds coming into Europe Tuesday at American Forces Network headquarters in Mannheim, Germany. Even if the Hollywood writers' strike continues into the new year, viewers shouldn’t notice the lack of new material for at least a few months because they get shows late anyway, according to AFN officials.


Stateside writers’ strike slow to hit AFN
By Charlie Reed, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Wednesday, December 19, 2007

DARMSTADT, Germany — Though the Hollywood writers’ strike has sent his favorite late-night talk show into rerun hell, Army Spc. Adam Vettel hasn’t noticed.

“Most everything on AFN is reruns anyway,” said Vettel, with the 596th Maintenance Company out of Darmstadt.

Still, Vettel’s favorite show, “Late Show with David Letterman” and most other late-night talk shows, have been stuck in repeats since the writers union collectively walked off the job six weeks ago. The Writers Guild of America is negotiating to get more residual income for its members from the television, movie and radio industries.

Though U.S. TV networks got through the first few weeks of the strike thanks to a stockpile of programming, sitcoms and dramas now are starting to follow suit with the repeating late-night talk show circuit.

But, if the strike continues into the new year, military audiences shouldn’t notice the lack of new material for at least a few months, say American Forces Network executives. That’s because AFN starts airing current television series in January, months after they’ve already begun in the U.S.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=51105