Being from LA, I have a variety of friends in the entertainment industry. No doubt, my talent agent friends are sweating. What will the writers' strike mean?

Well, at first, probably not much. Hollywood studios have anticipated things -- and have stockpiled content. But this can only last for a couple months. After that, things can certainly get dicey (hey, entertainment is the #3 employer in LA county).

After all, look what technology did to the music industry. Might the same happen with network television and movies - especially in a world of Google Inc.'s (NASDAQ: GOOG) YouTube And what about the popularity of multi-player gaming? Or social networks?

I had a chance to interview Chase Norlin, who operates Pixsy (an online video search engine). According to him:

"The strike likely doesn't impact the online video industry. Today, online video generally falls into two large categories: customer generated content (CGM) on the low end and professionally produced video content on the high end, typically originating from existing video assets (e.g. TV production, movie trailers, etc). The semipro content production market, which falls in the middle, will likely become the next new market for online video production on the web. When this happens, a strike could significantly impact the online video industry in a negative way."

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

The Strike: What's bad for Hollywood is good for the 'net? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 05 Nov 2007 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.