The Directors Guild of America, after swift negotiations, reached a new contract with the major Hollywood studios Thursday, a move that ups the ante for striking writers to craft their own accord.
The three-year agreement advances how much directors earn when their work is distributed over the Internet, a keystone in the 11-week-old writers strike that has virtually shut down prime-time TV production and upended Hollywood's most sacred institution: the awards season.
Whether the terms won by directors will be acceptable to writers is not immediately clear.
However, if the Writers Guild of America spurns the DGA deal, tensions that have been brewing could divide and weaken the union.
"If the WGA rejects the basic concepts of a DGA deal, there's going to be a great deal of dissatisfaction among the membership," said Dick Wolf, creator and executive producer of the "Law & Order" TV shows. "The bottom line here is: This town should be back to work in three weeks."
Though writers and directors want the same thing -- compensation for the digital distribution of their work online, on cellphones and on other new-media devices -- they took different approaches. Unlike the writers, directors were less confrontational in their dealings with studios.
The negotiations between the directors and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the major studios, were preceded by weeks of informal talks between the parties. DGA studies also buttressed the studios' position that the future of the entertainment business on the Internet is less certain and developing more slowly than writers contend.
As a result, the directors were able to forge a compact with the big Hollywood studios in relatively short and peaceful order. Among the provisions secured by directors is a doubling of the current residual rate paid for downloads of TV shows and movies and the setting of a residual rate for advertising-supported streaming.
Gil Cates, who chaired the DGA's negotiating committee, said the contract achieved two key goals for the union: jurisdiction over new digital production and fair pay for work shown on the Internet.
"This is a very strong contract which has obvious value in it," Cates said. "I hope it helps the writers."
