MUMBAI: It is going to be a depressing Christmas for Hollywood.

Talks between the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Alliance Of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) broke down last Friday. There has been no indication so far as to when talks will resume.

The WGA went on strike over a month back. They want a better share in new media revenues. The breakdown came after eight days of talks in which not much was achieved.

In a statement the AMPTP says that it is puzzled and disheartened by an ongoing WGA negotiating strategy that seems designed to delay or derail talks rather than facilitate an end to this strike. "Union negotiators in our industry have successfully concluded 306 major agreements with the AMPTP since its inception in 1982. The WGA organisers sitting across the table from us have never concluded even one industry accord."

The WGA, meanwhile, says that the AMPTP on Friday abruptly ended negotiations by once again walking out and leaving its negotiators alone at the table.

"They are holding to their offer of a $250 fixed residual for unlimited one year streaming after a six-week window of free use. They still insist on the DVD rate for Internet downloads. They refuse to cover original material made for new media. This offer was accompanied by an ultimatum: the AMPTP demands we give up several of our proposals, including Fair Market Value (our protection against vertical integration and self-dealing), animation, reality, and, most crucially, any proposal that uses distributor’s gross as a basis for residuals.

"This would require us to concede most of our Internet proposal as a precondition for continued bargaining. The AMPTP insists we let them do to the Internet what they did to home video."

The WGA says that it rejected the idea of an ultimatum. "Although a number of items we have on the table are negotiable, we cannot be forced to bargain with ourselves. The AMPTP has many proposals on the table that are unacceptable to writers, but we have never delivered ultimatums.

" We remain ready and willing to negotiate, no matter how intransigent our bargaining partners are, because the stakes are simply too high. We were prepared to counter their proposal tonight, and when any of them are ready to return to the table, we’re here, ready to make a fair deal."

The AMPTP says that besides betraying a fundamental misunderstanding of the economics of new media, such as a streaming proposal that would require producers give writers more money than they make themselves, the WGA organisers are on an ideological mission far removed from the interests of their members.

"Their Quixotic pursuit of radical demands led them to begin this strike, and now has caused this breakdown in negotiations. We hope that the WGA will come back to this table with a rational plan that can lead us to a fair and equitable resolution to a strike that is causing so much distress for so many people in our industry and community."

The AMPTP says that WGA demands full control over reality television and animation. "In other words, they want us to make membership in their union mandatory to work in this industry – even though thousands of people in reality and animation have already chosen not to join the WGA."

The AMPTP further argues that the WGA's proposal for Internet compensation could actually cost producers more than they receive in revenues, thereby dooming the Internet media business before it ever gets started.

It is not just writers and producers that are affected. Many service providers to the entertainment industry are starting to feel the pinch. Production workers rallied in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday to urge the two parties to strike a deal.

The 'Strike A Deal' march and rally was the result of "a spontaneous grass-roots outgrowth of the concern and desire and below-the-line industry professionals and vendors whose jobs, livelihoods and futures hang in the balance," according to a statement posted on its blog, Strikeadeal.blogspot.com.

Reports state that 15,000 jobs have already been lost. California's economy is said to be losing over $20 million each day.