Writers Guild, Major Networks Reach Agreement

Negotiators for the Writers Guild of America, whose 1988 strike crippled the TV season that year, have reached an agreement with the production arms of the three major broadcast networks but remain at odds with a group representing independent producers and studios, guild officials announced Thursday.

The guild said board members of its Eastern and Western faction have endorsed a contract covering production by ABC, CBS and NBC that would take effect May 2.

The guild did not release many specifics of the new plan, pending a mailing of the details to members after Jan. 1. But it did say that some of the highlights include a pioneering clause detailing rates of payments to writers for the use of clips from TV shows or movies in interactive technology such as CD-ROM systems.

In addition, the guild said the agreement calls for higher minimum compensation, an acceleration of residual payments in certain transactions and broadening the coverage of writers who work on so-called “reality programming.”

The guild’s deal with the three networks is significant because the networks are rapidly expanding the amount of news and entertainment produced internally. They are expected to boost production even more with the lifting of restrictions on their ability to own financial interests in the shows they air and profit from the reruns in syndication.

The guild said it will meet in January with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the independent producers and studios who produce most television programming on the air, and that informal talks are continuing.

The schism between the networks and the alliance is unusual in that the parties almost always negotiate side by side in a united front. Negotiators for the networks did not return calls. Nick Counter, president of the alliance, did not comment on the schism, but said negotiations with the guild are not at an impasse.

But sources close to the guild side said they believe that the break stems partly from disagreements over the issue of how writers are compensated when they work on Fox network shows.

The three major networks believe that the playing field should be more level and that compensation for writers of shows on Fox should eventually be brought up to the standards set for writers on network shows.

Writers for Fox shows have received lower minimums and residuals, which has been viewed as an acknowledgment of Fox’s smaller audience and the fact that Fox technically has not qualified as a network under Federal Communications Commission guidelines.

As an example, the residuals a writer receives for a rerun of a 30-minute prime-time show on ABC, NBC or CBS is $7,863, compared to $3,145 the first time a show reruns on Fox.

But Fox’s rapid growth and its emergence as a major force--marked by events such as Fox’s gaining National Football League games--has brought pressure to apply the same guild terms to writers on its shows.

A similar break in negotiations took place when the networks separated in late November from the alliance in negotiating with the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists, purportedly over the Fox issue.

In addition, sources also said the failure of the guild to so far reach an agreement with the alliance also stems from the issue of compensating writers for the use of clips in interactive media, remains an open issue with the studios who are members of the alliance.

Some creative issues remaining between the guild and producers are said to include the so-called “possessive credit” in which directors often start a picture with the words “A film by” along with their names. But sources said the compensation of Fox writers and the use of clips in interactive technology remain bigger issues.

The guild has been close to reaching an agreement with producers on a new contract several times. The current one expires in 1995. It was an extension worked out in 1991 of the contract that was agreed to in 1988, when the industry suffered a devastating 154-day strike that virtually shut down television and film production.