Hollywood has let out a collective sigh of relief as the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of the Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), comprising studio heads and TV network executives, have drawn up a tentative three-year contract. This is expected to bring the 14-week old strike, which has crippled production in Hollywood, to an end.

Studio Briefing reports that New Corp President Peter Chernin and Disney CEO Robert Iger are being credited for having brought the negotiations to this stage. The WGA had been wrangling with the AMPTP for six months over the issue of new media residuals. It is believed that writers, as per the new contract, will receive a percentage of distributors’ revenues for videos streamed over the Internet in the third year of the contract, receiving a one-time only payment of $1,200 in the first two years.

In trying to assess the “winners and the losers” in the strike, Hollywood Reporter’s Carl DiOrio suggests that writers will fall into both categories, with many of them not having been paid for three months. Studios have clearly been affected, with production halted of TV shows and pilot production cancelled for the duration of the strike. Several feature films were postponed as well. Thought must also be given to the scores of production crew who were unable to work during the strike.

The end of the strike has occurred just in time to save the Oscars’ telecast, scheduled for 24 February, thus preventing a similar scenario to the Golden Globes, where the WGA picketed and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) refused to cross the picket lines.