Variety: Directors Make Deal

DIRECTORS MAKE DEAL
By DAVE MCNARY

In the first dramatic stroke toward ending the writers strike, the DGA’s reached a three-year deal with the AMPTP that offers key advances in jurisdiction and payment for programming on the Internet.

The deal, announced Thursday afternoon, capped six days of talks and opened the door for the Writers Guild of America to reach a similar pact. Minutes after the DGA deal was announced, the moguls asked WGA leaders to start informal talks that could lead to the end of the strike -- noting that such informal talks had helped lead to a deal with directors.

“We hope that this agreement with DGA will signal the beginning of the end of this extremely difficult period for our industry,” the moguls said. “Today we invite the WGA to engage with us in a series of informal discussions similar to the productive process that led us to a deal with the DGA to determine whether there is a reasonable basis for returning to formal bargaining.”

The move by the moguls may also smooth the path to a WGA deal by creating a de facto set of negotiations under which the major points would be hammered out before a return to formal bargaining with the AMPTP. Such a step could heighten chances for a WGA deal given the hostility that dominated last year’s negotiations.

Even before the Directors Guild deal was announced, the town’s focus had shifted to whether its gains would be enough to satisfy the WGA -- which departed from its usual fiery rhetoric in its first statement reacting to the pact while still grousing that the AMPTP ditched negotiations six weeks ago.