After more than three months, the Writer’s Guild (WGA) strike might be over. Really. Like, by tomorrow sometime. A tentative deal between the media conglomerates (the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, otherwise known as the AMPTP) and the WGA have forged a tentative agreement, committed to legalese on paper very late last night.
The eleventh-hour work hammering out the details of the agreement was in advance of bi-coastal meetings, during which the WGA negotiating committee will explain the terms of the proposal to the full membership and the union leadership will get a sense of member reaction to it. Guild leadership will meet on Sunday, to determine whether there is enough satisfaction with the proposed agreement to lift the three-month-old work-stoppage. The agreement would then be voted upon by the full membership of the guild within the next two weeks, formally accepting the agreement.
The details of the agreement are posted on United Hollywood, the unofficial blog of the WGA strike captains. In their letter to the WGA membership, guild presidents Patric Verrone (WGA-West) and Michael Winship (WGA-East) said that the agreement looks to the future, “in which the Internet becomes the primary means of both content creation and delivery.”
Acknowledging the toll taken upon not only WGA members, but “countless others,” Winship and Verrone emphasized that while the agreement may not be perfect, it will “bring sufficient gains to outweigh the potential risks." It is time, they continue “to accept this contract and settle the strike.”
During the three-month strike, the writers have been bolstered and encouraged by fan support, primarily via the powerful medium in which the WGA hoped to gain in its new contract — the Internet. A crucial issue for the writers has been compensation for Internet distribution of film and television products. During the past year, series television and, to a slightly lesser extent, movies have found a new and convnenient form of delivery via Internet download and streaming. Writers will now be compensated when the networks profit from downloaded videos via providers like iTunes and Amazon Unbox — or when they are streamed directly from network and other websites.
.jpg?t=20130517094513)
Article comments
1 - Barbara Barnett
Updating this as of Tuesday evening. The WGA has vote by a very large margin(92%) to lift the strike. This would indicate that the ratification vote, which will be by mail should pass handily.
Writers will be back to work tomorrow, and we'll probably see an immediate effect first on Jon Stewart and Colbert, and then Leno, etc.
An interview on Saturday with a House, MD writer suggested that it will be approximately 6 weeks until an episode is ready airing: It takes 9 days to film once the script is ready, parts cast, etc. and then all of the post production stuff. So we may see new episodes as of mid to late April as I previously suggested.