The Writer’s Guild of America (WGA), did not have successful negotiations with the Alliance of Producers of Cinema and Television (AMPTP).
The main problem was with the rights of the author with all of the new methods of diffusing movies and television, such as DVDs, cell phones and much more. The screenwriters would like to get their share of the profits, which the producers are firmly refusing.
The strike will likely first affect night talk shows that are live such as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Late Show with David Letterman, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Saturday Night Live.
The rest of television programming will feel the effects at the beginning of the New Year. There was a similar conflict in 1988 that lasted five months. The cinema and television industry evaluated the impacts of this strike at $500 million.