As tv and film writers began their 101st day on strike on Thursday, the leaders of their union mentioned that they had agreed to formally restart negotiations with studios for a brand new three-year contract.

“Our committee returns to the bargaining table ready to make a fair deal, knowing the unified W.G.A. membership stands behind us and buoyed by the ongoing support of our union allies,” the Writers Guild of America negotiating committee mentioned in a press release. The session will happen in Los Angeles on Friday.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which bargains on behalf of leisure firms, declined to remark. Carol Lombardini, the alliance’s president, contacted the Writers Guild on Wednesday with a request to return to formal negotiations. Her attraction adopted an off-the-cuff sidebar session between the 2 sides late final week.

After that assembly, the Writers Guild despatched a word to its 11,500 members saying Ms. Lombardi had indicated a willingness by studios to sweeten their contract provide in some areas, together with discovering methods to safeguard writers from synthetic intelligence expertise. The word added, nonetheless, that Ms. Lombardini had mentioned studios “were not willing to engage” on different Writers Guild proposals, together with success-based residual funds from streaming companies. The word mentioned guild leaders wouldn’t return to negotiations till studios had been prepared to have interaction on all proposals.

The announcement of a return to the bargaining desk was the primary constructive improvement in a dual labor walkout — tens of 1000’s of actors went on strike in mid-July — that has introduced Hollywood manufacturing to a halt. Late-night tv exhibits instantly went darkish, and broadcast networks have retooled their fall seasons to incorporate largely actuality collection.

Last week’s session, which lasted about an hour, was the primary time the lead negotiators from both sides had sat down in individual since May 1, when talks collapsed. Both sides had characterised it as a gathering to find out whether or not it made sense to restart talks. With a strike beginning to harm firms and writers alike, was there a give-and-take available? Pressure has been growing from a number of instructions to achieve an settlement.

“It is critical that this gets resolved immediately so that Los Angeles gets back on track, and I stand ready to personally engage with all the stakeholders in any way possible to help get this done,” Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles, mentioned in a press release final Friday.

Screenwriters and actors are anxious about not receiving a justifiable share of the spoils of a streaming-dominated future. They say streaming-era enterprise practices have made their career an unsustainable one.

Many streaming exhibits have eight to 12 episodes per season, in contrast with greater than 20 made for conventional tv. Writers are combating for higher residual pay, a kind of royalty for reruns and different showings, which they’ve mentioned is an important supply of earnings for the middle-class author whose compensation has been upended by streaming.

The Writers Guild additionally needs studios to ensure that synthetic intelligence won’t encroach on writers’ credit and compensation. The studios rejected the guild’s proposed guardrails, as a substitute suggesting an annual assembly on advances in expertise. (In current weeks, studio executives have mentioned in interviews that they made a mistake by not taking the union’s A.I. considerations extra significantly.)

The studios defended their provide after negotiations broke down, saying in a press release that it included “generous increases in compensation for writers.” The major sticking factors, studios have mentioned, are union proposals that will require studios to workers TV exhibits with a sure variety of writers for a specified interval, “whether needed or not.”

Caught within the crossfire of the Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA, because the actors’ guild is thought, are tens of 1000’s of crew members and small companies (dry cleaners, caterers, lumber yards) that assist film and tv manufacturing. The 2007-8 writers’ strike price the California financial system greater than $2 billion, in response to the Milken Institute, which not too long ago estimated that losses this time might be double that determine.