Hollywood screenwriters to strike for first time in 20 years

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A strike by Hollywood writers will begin on Monday morning unless a last-minute contact deal is reached with studios over the weekend, union officials said on Friday. Hollywood writers said they will strike for the first time in nearly 20 years.

''The board of directors of the Writers Guild of America West and the Council of the Writers Guild of America East acting upon the authority granted by them by the memberships have voted unanimously to call a strike effective 12.01 am Monday November 5,'' said Patric M Verrone, the President of Writers Guild of America West.

Union leaders said they would delay the action if producers showed movement in contract negotiations, especially on the key issue of paying writers when television episodes are sold or streamed over the Internet.

"This past Wednesday the AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) called a halt to talks by demanding that the Guild accept the extension of the current DVD formula to new media. This is not an action that anyone takes lightly but it slowly became apparent that the studios were not prepared to deal fairly with writers or the rest of the talent community," Verrone said.

The first casualty of the strike will likely be late-night talk shows, which are dependent on current events to fuel monologues and other entertainment.

The strike will not immediately impact film or prime-time television production. Most studios have stockpiled dozens of movie scripts, and television shows have enough scripts or completed shows in hand to last until early next year. About 3- thousand of the union's 12- thousand members attended last night's meeting.

The stakes are high for writers, actors and directors. While the revenue generated by Internet sales and rentals of films and television shows is minuscule compared to DVDs, the guilds say Internet revenue eventually will become dominant.

''For me it's a moral choice. I'm not going to cross my own guild's picket line certainly and I feel that unfortunately we have to inflict as much damage as we can as quickly as possible in order to get this thing over,'' said John F Bowman, a member of Writers Guild of America negotiating committee.

Consumers are expected to spend 16.4 (b) billion US dollars on DVDs this year, according to Adams Media Research.

By contrast, studios could generate about 158 (m) million US dollars from selling movies online and about 194 (m) million US dollars from selling television shows over the Web.

Studios argue that it is too early to know how much money they can make from offering entertainment on the Internet, cell phones, iPods and other devices.

Producers are uncertain whether consumers prefer a pay-per-view model over an advertising-supported system. They want the economic flexibility to experiment as consumer habits change in reaction to technology.