THE OBENSON REPORT

Union leaders for striking Hollywood writers said they have reached a tentative contract deal with studios and urged members on Saturday to support it, calling for an end to a three-month walkout that has crippled TV production and overshadowed Oscar season.

The breakthrough was announced via e-mail to the 10,500 members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) who launched the union's first strike in almost 20 years on November 5 in a dispute centering on compensation for work distributed over the Internet.

Key points in the deal include:

-- An increase in minimum rates of 3.5% each year. Exceptions include network primetime rates and daytime serial script fees, which will increase 3% each period. Program fees and upset price increase once by 3% in the second year; and clip fees increase once by 5% in the third year.

-- Made-for pay TV residuals: An annual residual payments' increase from $3,000 to $3,500 for a half-hour program and from $5,000 to $6,000 for an hour-long program.

-- For download sales (electronic sell-through) where the viewer pays for permanent use of a program, residuals are to be paid at 0.36% of 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, residuals are paid at 0.7% of distributor's gross receipts for television programs and 0.65% for feature films.

Read the entire article HERE (Hollywood Reporter).