FACTBOX: Screenwriters strike by the numbers

(Reuters) - The following are some economic factors at stake in the strike by some 10,500 members of the Writers Guild of America.

* The motion picture and television industry generates $30 billion in annual economic activity for Los Angeles County alone.

* About 254,000 people are directly employed in the county's film and television industry -- from actors and directors to hairstylists, set designers, truck drivers and clerks. That is double the number who worked in the industry 20 years ago.

* The Los Angeles Economic Development Corp. estimates at least $650 million in wages have been lost in the region's film and television industry since the strike began November 5, with $1.2 billion more in lost earnings caused by a ripple effect in the local economy.

* The last major Hollywood strike was in 1988, when a 22-week walkout by the WGA delayed the start of that year's fall television season and hit the entertainment industry with at least $500 million in lost earnings.

* Production on some 60 prime-time television dramas and comedies normally filmed in the Los Angeles area were shut down by the latest strike, idling roughly 11,000 crew members.

* A private industry analysis reported by Daily Variety projects that lost spending on U.S. film and television production would reach about $3 billion if the strike were to last another two to three months, with collateral economic losses topping $5 billion.

* A key stumbling block in contract talks had been writers' demands for higher "residual" fees when their work is resold in the form of Internet downloads. The union originally sought 2.5 percent of the distributor's gross revenues, while the studios wanted to hold the rate to the equivalent of just 0.3 percent. The tentative deal would pay 0.7 percent of gross revenues, but that rate only kicks in after the first 50,000 downloads for movies and 100,000 downloads for television.

* The U.S. download-to-own market for movies and television episodes -- a small but growing chunk of entertainment revenues -- was expected to reach $315 million at the end of 2007 and nearly $1.2 billion by 2011, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.