FACTBOX-Hollywood writers strike by the numbers
(Reuters) - Film and television writers started going on strike on Monday as last-minute talks aimed at averting the Writers Guild of America's first strike in almost two decades collapsed.
The strike against the film and TV industry will immediately idle the union's 12,000 members and throw some TV programs into reruns, starting with soap operas and late-night talk shows.
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 cost the entertainment industry an estimated $500 million.
Here are some economic factors at stake in the current labor dispute.
* Economists estimate a strike of the same duration as the 1988 walkout would result in at least $1 billion in economic losses.
* The U.S. film and television industry employs more than 200,000 people -- from actors and directors to hairstylists, electricians, truck drivers and clerks.
* The motion picture and TV industry generates $30 billion in annual economic activity for Los Angeles County alone.
* One of the biggest stumbling blocks in the contract talks has been writers' demand for an increase in the "residual" fees they earn on the reuse of their work on DVDs -- from about 4 cents for every DVD to about 8 cents.
* The studios say members of the WGA West earned $56 million in DVD residuals last year.
* The union says the total compensation package sought by writers would cost $220 million over three years, a fraction of the $24.4 billion in revenues generated by U.S. DVD sales and rentals last year alone, according to accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.
