It may have just gotten worse.
This in today.
Over recent days, with the writers and studios back in talks and neither side releasing statements to the press, there was a rising optimism that the nearly four-week writers' strike could be over in just days.
That optimism was dashed late last night when the 12,000-member Writers Guild of America released a statement all but rejecting the latest offer from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Strikers are set to resume walking the picket lines on Monday.
What the AMPTP was choosing to call a New Economic Partnership the WGA was quick to dismiss as a "massive rollback" that offered nothing in addition to what the studios had put on the table in their last offer regarding compensation for DVD sales and new media.
"The companies presented in essence their Nov. 4 package with not an iota of movement on any of the issues that matter to writers," reads a statement posted by WGA presidents Patric M. Verrone of the West Coast chapter and Michael Winship of the East Coast chapter.
This is not a good sign at all.
By all accounts, the two sides sat about a table for much of this week without breaking through their months-long stalemate, contrary to reports that a deal was imminent. The worry is that if a deal isn't reached soon, talks will break off and will not resume until the new year.
The two sides are to resume talks Tuesday, with the WGA taking the weekend to review the AMPTP proposal, put forth late yesterday, in detail. And at that time, the group representing the film and TV studios and networks is expected to come back with another set of proposals, what's being billed as the second part of its New Economic Partnership and reportedly also having to do with new media rights.
As it stands now, the sides are still way far apart.
In its latest offer the AMPTP proposes paying writers a total of $130 million in fees for new media content, including shows streamed over the internet. But as the WGA break those numbers down, it would come out to around $250 in compensation for streaming a one-hour show over the course of a year, as compared to more than $20,000 in fees for a rerun on network TV.
The studios are not budging on a WGA demand for jurisdiction over original web content.
The writers' latest package, presented on Wednesday, would cost the studios and networks $151 million over three years, for what the WGA says would amount to a 3 percent raise over what writers are making this year.
"The AMPTP's intractability is dispiriting news but it must also be motivating. Any movement on the part of these multinational conglomerates has been the result of the collective action of our membership," reads the WGA statement.
"We must fight on, returning to the lines on Monday in force to make it clear that we will not back down, that we will not accept a bad deal, and that we are all in this together."
The AMPTP’s statement ends with this somewhat less rousing comment: "We continue to believe that there is common ground to be found between the two sides, and that our proposal for a New Economic Partnership offers the best chance to find it."