TV, Movie Writers to Vote on Ending Strike

Updated from Feb. 9.

Entertainment writers in Los Angeles and New York will be able to decide Tuesday whether to end a three-month strike that has hurt the entertainment industry.

Board members of the Writers Guild of America Sunday approved a new contract that guild representatives hashed out with movie and television producers. Rank-and-file members of the guild will vote on the contract over the next few weeks.

On Tuesday, however, members will have the opportunity to vote whether to end the strike immediately while contract ratification is underway. That could put members back at work on Wednesday.

On Saturday, guild leaders told members they had reached a tentative agreement on a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

The strike has disrupted programming at the television networks. For example, General Electric's(GE) NBC lost millions in advertising revenue because it was unable to broadcast a full version of the Golden Globe awards, and News Corp.'s(NWS) Fox was forced to postpone the seventh season of its hit drama 24.

The key sticking point between writers and producers was how the former should be compensated when their work appears on the Internet.

The Wall Street Journal has reported the new contract is similar to one reached Jan. 17 between the Directors Guid of America and the producers, which has provisions for compensating directors for work done specifically for the Internet, and for traditional programs and movies that are streamed on the Web.

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