I was just thinking recently:

It seems that a few years ago when the writers went on strike, more people actually paid attention and it affected more viewers.

Just doing "on the fly" polls of coworkers, friends, family etc - it really seems this time around like the general public aren't as affected. Why? - because we can just as easily get our entertainment and information elsewhere! Whereas the big box in our sitting rooms up until fairly recently was the main source of our entertainment, news and advertising, now it's just as likely to be the beige box! Or the beige box, placeshifting online content to the big box in the sitting room! Podcast, news feeds, youtube, etc - all ganging up on traditional media for our attentions and seemingly winning!

Personally i believe the writers guild have just cause for this action - it just seems like until such times as the internet writers, bloggers and content providers go on strike it won't make much difference to a growing percentage of today's media consumer.