Writers (Finally) Making Progress in Strike Talks

Gillian Reagan — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 15:45:56 -0400

Negotiations between the Writers Guild of America and the studios will continue today, after the feuding groups came out of a two-day talk with "substantive" progress made, according to the Associated Press. However, both sides are still arguming about compensation for movies and TV shows streamed online. The studios had proposed a flat $250 payment for a year's use of an hour-long TV show on the Web (compared to the $20,000 paycheck writers get for a rerun of a show on the network).

Here's how the writers want it:

Striking Hollywood writers on Wednesday called for a formula for the thorny issue of online compensation that's different from the one studios proposed last week in an effort to end the five-week walkout.

The Writers Guild of America said it accepted the idea of a fixed residual for TV shows in the first year of online use, but the payment should be adjusted upward for each 100,000 streams per quarter.

"We believe these formulas will protect the writer even if all television reuse migrates to new media," the guild said in a statement.

After the first year, the union wants 2.5 percent of a distributor's gross receipts for TV shows and movies streamed over the Internet.

Observer » Writers (Finally) Making Progress in Strike Talks

Writers (Finally) Making Progress in Strike Talks