Could Actors Strike Destroy Hollywood?

But if the Screen Actors Guild decide to strike, it could be game over.

"If we go through that again, I severely question both the economy -- given the state of the economy we're already in -- and the future on the broadcast side," said Jeff Zucker, president and chief executive officer of NBC Universal, during a speech in front of the International Advertising Association's World Congress in Washington. "The fact is I don't think it would have an impact on the film business. Our film business has prepared. But it would have a real impact on the television business, and I don't think the economy or the television business would be able to survive something like that."

With that means there is more of a focus on the digital side of media distribution, although any disruption caused by collective bargaining could also impact those aspects of the business.

Hulu, in the meantime, has done better than originally projected. Both NBCU and News Corp. is on board, and it may not be long before CBS, Viacom and Disney come aboard. Hulu is set up to compete directly with Apple Inc.'s iTunes, which NBCU has claimed in the past does not have the flexibility to take on variable pricing. Apple has maintained that one of its major draws is that pricing is consistent across the board, and that providing more varied pricing could remove a lot of that convenience.

"We are in a tremendous digital transition," Zucker said. "The problem we face today is not that we don't want to make all of content digital. We do, but the economics are not there.

"We are cognizant that when content goes online, economics go down, but viewership goes up. The biggest concern is replacing analog dollars with digital pennies."

Why wait to visit SyFy Portal when you can get headlines and breaking news right in your e-mail box for free? Take the plunge by sending a blank e-mail to syfyportal-subscribe@yahoogroups.com!

Talk about this story