Oscars on Course As Writers' Strike Ends

The Oscars will go ahead as planned later this month after US film and television writers voted to end the 100-day strike that brought Hollywood to a standstill.

An overwhelming majority of members of the Writers Guild of America - 92.5% - yesterday voted to return to work in the dispute over online and DVD payments.

The strike, which began on November 5, hit dozens of TV shows and films and forced the Golden Globes awards ceremony to be scrapped last month.

UK television channels also suffered as production of their most reliable American hits, such as Sky One's 24 and Channel 4's Ugly Betty, came to a halt.

"The strike is over. Our members have voted. Writers can go back to work," said the WGA president, Patric Verrone, after the ballot result was announced just before 7pm local time in Los Angeles last night.

WGA members had been expected to vote in favour of ending the strike after the union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers - which represents Hollywood studios - reached a deal on Saturday in increase writers' share of profits from TV shows distributed online.

"At the end of the day, everybody won," said the head of the CBS network, Leslie Moonves.

"It was a fair deal ... and it recognizes the large contribution that writers have made to the industry."

The resolution means the Oscars will be able to go ahead and be televised as planned on February 24 without the threat of a picket or boycott.

Verrone acclaimed the deal as giving writers a "foothold in the digital age".

"This was not a strike we wanted, but one we had to conduct," he said.

"Rather than being shut out of the future of content creation and delivery, writers will lead the way as TV migrates to the internet and platforms for new media are developed."

Writers are expected to return to work today, with the first TV shows hit by the strike back on air likely to be NBC's Saturday Night Live on February 23, hosted by 30 Rock star Tina Fey.

However, drama and comedy shows will inevitably take longer to get back on air, with another NBC show, The Office, expected back in the middle of next month.

Some low-rating shows that were affected by the strike might not be back at all, with networks using the enforced break to wield the axe.

Among those most likely for the chop, according to the Hollywood rumor mill, is NBC's Bionic Woman, starring former EastEnder Michelle Ryan.

Under the terms of the deal, writers would get a maximum flat fee of about $1,200 (£600) for streamed programs in the first two years, followed by 2% of a distributor's gross in the third year, according to reports.

The strike was estimated to have cost the county of Los Angeles a total of $3.2bn, according to one report, with writers said to have lost around $285m in lost wages.

Yesterday's WGA vote to end the strike brings to an end the most damaging period of industrial action to hit Hollywood in 20 years. The last writers' strike in 1988 lasted 153 days.

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