ABC Studios has taken the unusual step of responding directly to allegations made by the Writers Guild of America, East about the amount of money it makes from digital content.

A leaflet passed out by the WGAE yesterday claimed that writers earn nothing from the $1.5bn in digital revenues earned by Disney-ABC last year.

In a statement, a spokesperson for ABC Studios said: "The WGA leadership is deliberately distorting the facts. As the WGA knows full well, more than half of Disney's digital revenues are from sales of travel packages and the vast majority of the rest is from online advertising on sites like Disney.com and ESPN.com and through online merchandise sales. The WGA also knows its members have been paid residuals on entertainment content downloaded via iTunes. Deliberately misleading the public is not the best way to resolve this issue and get Hollywood back to work."

In response, the WGAE told Variety: "We would better know the nature of Disney's and ABC’s revenues from digital if they would more fully and transparently reveal them to us. For example, their statement does not mention that much of the online advertising on their websites accompanies streaming video of our members' work in television and film for which they receive absolutely nothing. All we're asking for is a fair, respectful, small share."