The Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Hollywood studios looked set to continue negotiations on Friday to end a strike that has lasted close to five months after no resolution was reached in Thursday’s talks.
The WGA and top film-studio executives represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) started meeting on Wednesday for the first time in about a month, but according to a report on CNN, no middle ground has been found yet.
The AMPTP includes The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS), Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX) and other media companies. Executives including Warner Bros Discovery Inc (NASDAQ:WBD) CEO David Zaslav, Disney CEO Bob Iger, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, and NBCUniversal studio chairman chairman and chief content officer Donna Langley were part of the talks.
“Marathon sessions” of negotiations lasted more than 10 hours on Thursday but reached no deal, CNN said, citing an unnamed source.
The WGA negotiating committee said in an email to its members that talks with the AMPTP would resume on Friday.
“Your Negotiating Committee appreciates all the messages of solidarity and support we have received the last few days, and ask as many of you as possible to come out to the picket lines tomorrow,” said the email seen by CNN.
Members of the WGA union went on strike on May 2 over an ongoing labor dispute with the AMPTP. Actors joined the picket lines in July.
Earlier this month, Warner Brothers Discovery cut its full-year earnings guidance due to the ongoing impact of the strike by writers and actors, although the company said it saved $100 million in second-quarter operating costs.
The WGA has calculated that the strike is costing California's economy about $30 million a day based on the impact of the last writers' strike in 2007-2008. CNBC reported that if the strikes continue into October the total impact could be more than $5 billion.
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