One hopes that by the time you read this - or very soon thereafter - the ACTRA strike will be over. If the dispute between the actors and the CFTPA and APFTQ is not dealt with shortly, insiders feel that it could go on for a long time, and it all comes at a particularly bad time for Canadian production.

The impact on domestic productions that are underway or forthcoming has been small, actually, as ACTRA members will continue working provided producers on individual projects sign a continuation letter agreeing to pay them a 5% rate increase plus a 2% bump in insurance and retirement contributions.

The producers' "hard stick" in the conflict is an Ontario Superior Court hearing set for Jan. 23-24, initiated by the CFTPA and APFTQ, which claim that both ACTRA's strike action and the continuation letters are illegal. If it gets to that point, the heated war of words that has marked the situation so far will only escalate.

Consider a statement issued on Jan. 12 by the AMPTP, which reps U.S. producers, and which sits beside its Canadian colleagues on the bargaining committee: "The ACTRA strike has created a situation that could potentially have a devastating and long term impact on production in all of Canada with the exception of British Columbia," it begins.

It refers to U.S. producers avoiding Canada - except for B.C., where an agreement is in place until the end of March - for the duration of the labor action. But don't think that the U.S. producers aren't signing continuation letters because of a 5% pay hike for some supporting actors on service jobs. The real sticking point here is new media, and the AMPTP is looking ahead to its own negotiations with SAG and AFTRA on the matter. (The current AFTRA agreement expires Nov. 15, 2007, while SAG's is up June 30, 2008.)

These are very early days for putting TV and film product on the Internet and in webisodes and mobisodes - and who knows what flavors of digital media are fast approaching. It is a nebulous enough task to figure out revenue models for such offerings, let alone a structure to pay performers for their contributions. So if the producer-actor negotiations are moving slowly, it's because the stakes are so high. Not only will any agreement signed now impact ACTRA and Canadian producers in the coming years, but the other Canuck talent guilds are also closely watching, as are producers and actors in the U.S., the U.K., Australia and beyond. Whatever comes out of this deal will set a precedent felt around the globe.

ACTRA wants its members to be paid a regular full day's wages for new media work; the producers say they want a benchmark for how much new media work will come out of that day, keeping in mind that a mobisode could be just 15 seconds long. The producers are willing to pay royalties to the actors amounting to 3.6% of distributors' gross revenue for use of that new media product, while ACTRA wants the ability to negotiate on a project-by-project basis.