WGA Strike Talks Resume

The session betweeen the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers took on a more cordial tone on Dec. 4th . Talks continue today, with both sides having made a proposal on the issue of new media residuals.

Tuesday's talks focused mostly on Web streaming as the Writers Guild of America presented a counteroffer to last week's proposal by the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers. Writers A source close to the talks described the sesh as encouraging and more productive than previous sessions as writers presented their tiered usage plan.

However, the WGA said the AMPTP's math was deeply flawed when the companies estimated that scribes would see a $130 million increase in total compensation over three years. The writers concluded it would be more like $32 million.

Part of the problem is that the producers have not revealed their methods for estimating these figures -- and scribes are innately suspicious of Hollywood bookkeeping.

But when the WGA presented its counterproposal, the studios and nets offered conceptual questions about structure and measurement of streaming usage -- in other words, they didn't reject the proposal out of hand.

One source described the queries as being respectful and, in another sign of possible progress, reps for both sides discussed the proposal informally at a sidebar.

The WGA's proposal -- based on how many times a program is viewed -- for Internet streaming of TV dramas came in response to the fixed annual $250 residual offered last week by the AMPTP.