TVSquad

Variety is reporting that the strike is indeed over. I think I speak for everyone at TV Squad when I say, "Yay!" to this news. The WGA West president announced that almost 93% of the guild members have voted in favor of lifting the strike. The total vote tally was 3,492 members for yes and 283 for no. The vote, held over 48 hours, allowed members to vote in person at the Writer's Guild Theatre in Beverly Hills or the Gotham Crowne Plaza or via fax.

As Bob detailed earlier, it looks like there may be an end in sight to the three-month old writers strike. In fact, Variety reports that now it's just a matter of crossing the T's, dotting the I's, and voting on the new contract. As for the rest of this season and next? TV executives had slated February 15th as the "Do or Die" date. If a deal could not be made by that date, this season was pretty much done and pilot season for next year was at risk as well. But now it looks like this thing may be over by the end of this week.

Compromises were made on both sides, but the streaming revenue the writers were fighting for has been addressed, with scribes getting a flat fee for for the first year (excluding a limited free initial 2-3 week window for promotional purposes) followed by a percentage of distributor's gross. What this means is that networks will be able to stream all shows for several weeks after their initial airing for free, and they can keep a whole season online for a year for a single flat rate, but for deals like the current streaming of the entire Lost run in HD on abc.com, a percentage cut would go to writers. Download residuals closely followed the earlier DGA deal, which nearly doubles writer residuals there. Hopefully, they can wrap this up soon and we can get our full Lost season in this year. And maybe a late start to 24 as well?

Author and television writer Peter David offered his own take on the DGA deal with the AMPTP (see his January 18th post) and what it means tor the WGA. Fundamentally, Mr. David believes the the hesitancy of the AMPTP to give Internet residuals was a smokescreen to prevent the WGA from unionizing reality and animation shows.

The proof of this lies with the rapidity of the DGA agreement with regards to similar terms. Now there is pressure on the WGA to ratify the agreement as-is. I suppose if the WGA agreement is done soon,

The DGA has accomplished what the WGA has not thus far. It has negotiated a new contract with the AMPTP.

The new contract does include a residual payment formula for new media including the Internet. Both the DGA and the AMPTP seem satisfied with the arrangement, based on statements by both sides.