It is a complex equation here. While the studios make money from the DVD sales (and online sales, though that's not a big issue yet) and the writers complain they are not getting a proper share of it, an actual serious depletion of new broadcast shows will affect both sides, and speed up the rewriting of the rules of broadcast TV.

The question is, will this rule rewriting be good for either side, or neither, or both? DVD and online sales will start to disintermediate the networks. The studio will get closer to the customer and get more of the pie. Advertising will start to drop as a source of revenue, which is presumably why the writers feel now is the time to push for a share of what will become the big pie. And we presume the studios and networks know that and that's why they are resisting so hard.

As I've written before, the economics of selling TV are odd, and are in many cases artifacts of the old technology. Just as music is going through a rewriting of its economics, TV is due for one too. With our DVRs we don't see commercials, and we will resist being forced to watch them in our online video, I think. But people don't mind ads, as Google has profitably shown. They mind ads that don't make efficient use of their time.