Producers nationwide have reached a new collective agreement with the Writers Guild of Canada, are close to a deal with the Directors Guild of Canada, and, along with U.S. producers, face mediation in their standoff with the Union of British Columbia Performers.

The tentative deal between the WGC's 1,800-strong membership and the CFTPA and its Quebec counterpart, the APFTQ, calls for a 4% across-the-board rise in front-end writer fees over three years, and a 6.5% rise in fees for TV movie and miniseries writers.

But WGC negotiators secured no increases in production fees nor royalty payments, and the 4% raise falls well below the 10% over three years increase recently secured by the B.C. Council of Film Unions, repping technicians and drivers, from Canadian and U.S. producers.

The consensus is that the WGC conceded on fees to get the APFTQ to agree to once again bargain alongside the CFTPA during these latest talks on a new Independent Production Agreement to Dec. 31, 2008.

For their part, the producers secured discounts on low-budget production, consisting mainly of fact-based reality and lifestyle fare that has tended to go non-union in recent years.

CFTPA is also closing in on a new collective agreement with the DGC after the WGC deal broke an apparent logjam.

"No one wanted to go through first. Now that the writers are done, you will see a number of deals done quickly," predicts John Barrack, CFTPA national executive vice-president and counsel.

And yet, the UBCP's negotiations in Vancouver with U.S. producers allied with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers, and secondarily the CFTPA, have reached an impasse. Veteran arbitrator Vince Ready has been called in to mediate those talks, but no dates have been set.

The sticking point is apparently AMPTP's demand for discounts on low-budget projects.

Failure in settling the UBCP talks stands in the way of separate negotiations on a new IPA between the CFTPA, APFTQ and ACTRA, the national performers union.

Those talks have been delayed a few times already, and are now set to begin in September at the earliest, according to both sides in those negotiations.