TV writers' strike could start on Friday

The Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have failed to reach an agreement on new pay terms, and a strike that will affect production of key American television programmes could go ahead as early as Friday morning.

Writers have been attempting to negotiate with the AMPTP - which represents America's TV studios and networks - for an increase in royalty payments for use of their work on DVDs and internet downloads. The AMPTP has resisted, citing uncertainty over digital media-based business models.

Negotiations had been taking place since July but the current WGA-AMPTP contract expired last night at midnight Pacific time. Emergency talks have been scheduled for tonight but the two sides have given no indication that a compromise will be possible.

The first shows to be affected by such a strike will be comedy and sketch shows such as Comedy Central hits The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. As-live programming such as NBC's Tonight Show and Dave Letterman's Late Show would be next. Any impact on scripted shows would be seen after a lead-time, because studios have been stockpiling scripts in anticipation of a strike. It is understood that key primetime fare across the major broadcast networks would likely survive into early 2008 in the event of a strike; should an agreement still not have been reached, reruns and news would likely be used to fill gaps in the schedule.