Writers' strike tab: reported $300M

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- The West Coast head of the striking writers guild is calling on producers to break ranks with the studio alliance he said is allowing "hard-liners" to obstruct negotiations.

"If any of these companies want to come forward and bargain with us individually, we think we can make a deal," Patric Verrone, head of the Writers Guild of America West, told The Associated Press on Monday while talking to picketing writers at NBC's studio in Burbank.

Verrone criticized the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents studios.

Talks were set to resume Tuesday after the alliance made a new proposal Thursday regarding compensation for work shown on the Internet, a central issue in negotiations. Verrone declined to provide details about the talks.

"I don't really feel like they're negotiating, and part of how they operate is the AMPTP allows bottom-line hard-liners to rule the day," Verrone said.

The alliance declined comment Monday. But in a full-page ad set to appear in trade newspapers Tuesday, the industry group struck a conciliatory tone, saying it hadn't given the guild a "take it or leave it" offer.

The alliance's offer calls for writers to accept a flat fee of about $250 for a year's reuse of an hour-long program shown on the Internet. The guild is seeking a percentage of gross revenues for new-media distribution.

The proposal was designed to allow substantive give-and-take discussion that "can lead to common ground," the ad said. It also restated elements of the proposal and warned that writers, producers and other workers and businesses would suffer in a long strike.

"We choose to remain hopeful, because the alternative is simply too bleak to contemplate," the ad said.

A Wall Street analyst said that if the strike continues into next year, it will begin to affect the first- and second-quarter outlooks for the TV divisions of media conglomerates.

The strike could cost CBS, ABC and Fox a combined $300 million, according to a report from Alan Gould, senior analyst with New York-based Natixis Bleichroeder. The report did not mention NBC.

Gould said he was warning clients that, given the complexity of the issues, the strike might not end quickly.

Fallout from the labor dispute has been growing. NBC had agreed to pay the staff of "The Tonight Show" for two weeks, then extended that for another two weeks before announcing layoffs Friday.

The workers will be paid at least through this week, courtesy of host Jay Leno. With Leno honoring picket lines, "Tonight" has been in reruns since the strike began November 5.

He agreed to cover the salaries of about 80 non-writing staff members of the top-rated late-night talk show, an NBC executive said.

Leno will reassess the situation week by week, depending on what happens with the contract talks, said the executive, speaking on condition of anonymity because the person lacked authorization to comment publicly.

The comedian also gave out his Christmas checks to staff members earlier than usual. Some unidentified workers were quoted in trade publications complaining the gifts were smaller than in years past.

Dick Guttman, Leno's publicist, said the host has routinely given out millions in anniversary celebration bonuses as well as holiday gifts.

"There is a reason he's viewed as a good guy," Guttman said.

Last month, staffers with "Late Show with David Letterman" and "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" on CBS were promised continued payment at least through December by Letterman, whose production company, Worldwide Pants, owns both shows. Those programs are in reruns as well.

Conan O'Brien had promised to cover the salaries of about 75 non-striking "Late Night" staffers out of his own pocket.

The only late-night show to resume production so far has been NBC's "Last Call With Carson Daly."

The NBC programs are owned by Universal Media Studios, which, like the network, is owned by General Electric Co. ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co., while Fox is a unit of News Corp. E-mail to a friend

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