Just when we were convincing ourselves that we really could get into a TV schedule comprised of nothing but Paradise Hotel 2, Big Brother and cooking shows, the WGA has reached a tentative deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. At 3 am Saturday morning (god bless morning people!), the union's East and West Coast presidents zapped off emails to their membership stating that a deal has been made through 2011 that "protects a future in which the Internet becomes the primary means of both content creation and delivery."
Reportedly, the offer is being detailed to WGA East members right now in New York, with their West Coast brethren to get the lowdown this evening. If all goes well, each coast's board of directors will confab Sunday to formally endorse the contract. In that scenario, the scribes could be back at their keyboards as early as Monday.
Key among the new pact's points of interest:
• In the third year of the contract, writers would receive 2 percent of the distributor's gross on streamed content (a hike from the $1,200-ish payment scribes will get in the first two years). However, as the DGA does, the WGA has a 17-day window on all streamed content, meaning that studios can stream for free during that period.
• With regard to Internet sales, writers will get 0.36 percent of the distributor's gross receipts for the first 100,000 downloads of a television program and the first 50,000 downloads of a feature. After that, they'll bank 0.7 percent of distributor's gross receipts for TV shows and 0.65 percent for feature films.
• Ad-supported streaming of TV shows will net the writers two percent of distributors' gross receipts a year after the initial streaming window is closed.
Until the ink dries, I won't say it outloud, but I will quietly type it: "Yippee!"
Check back later and throughout the weekend for updates. Believe us, once the strike is truly over, the TVGuide.com homepage will make sure that you know it!
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