Writers to Offer Counterproposal on New Media

The WGA will counter the AMPTP's offer on new-media streaming, proposing in the Dec. 4 negotiation fixed compensation rates that would rise incrementally with higher viewership.

"If the number of eyeballs go up, then our residual would go up," a source close to WGA negotiators said. "Our proposal tries to find a way of making things a little more flexible."

One source told The Hollywood Reporter that the WGA's counter offer would provide streaming compensation roughly equal to the $20,000 a TV writer makes from the broadcast rerun of an hour of dramatic episode. But meager viewership would trigger "very, very low" writer payouts, much closer to the $250 figure suggested by the AMPTP's proposal.

"It's not our intention to make (the streaming residual) so high that it's impossible for them to do business," a source close to the WGA team said.