At least according to former Disney CEO Michael Eisner who, in his keynote conversation at the Media and Money conference today, suggested that Apple is eating up the digital media profits the Writers Guild wants a larger share of. The studios “make deals with Steve Jobs, who takes them to the cleaners,” Eisner said. “They make all these kinds of things, and who’s making money? Apple! They should get a piece of Apple. If I was a union, I’d be striking up wherever he is.”

Seems writers and producers still can’t agree on pay schedules for content distributed on the Internet and via other digital media. Or rather, the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers is a bit too attached to the lousy DVD deal it convinced the writers to agree to 20 years ago, which gives writers, directors and actors a combined 20 cents for each DVD sale–30 cents less than the sum given to manufacturers of DVD packaging material.

“The companies refused to continue to bargain unless we agree that the hated DVD formula be extended to Internet downloads,” the guild said in a statement. “[W]e presented the AMPTP with a comprehensive package of proposals that included movement on DVDs, new media, and jurisdictional issues. We also took nine proposals off the table. The companies returned six hours later and said they would not respond to our package until we capitulated to their Internet demand. After three and a half months of bargaining, the AMPTP still has not responded to a single one of our important proposals.”

Too bad for the writers then. Because AMPTP president Nick Counter says increasing the DVD formula (a huge money-maker for the studios) is a nonstarter. “We want to make a deal,” he told WGA negotiators. “We think doing so is in your best interests, in your members’ best interests, in the best interests of our companies and in the best interests of the industry. But, as I said, no further movement is possible to close the gap between us so long as your DVD proposal remains on the table.”

Way to extend that desiccated olive branch, Nick. As John Scott Lewinski notes over at Wired, the producers offering to settle if the Guild drops all that is like the Galactic Empire telling Luke Skywalker, “OK, we’ll surrender … but only if we get to keep the Death Star.”

We have nothing to do, the writers aren’t here. So a guy’s gonna come in and shave me. Fifty-five minutes, ladies and gentlemen! Fifty-five minutes to go!”

–David Letterman wings it during the last writers’ strike in 1988.

Unscripted reality TV, box-office bombs, endless reruns–dreck. There’s plenty of it on television now and there will be even more if the industry’s writers and producers cannot agree on a new contract by the end of the month. Because the writers’ unions–the Writers Guild of America, both West and East–have voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike should negotiators determine that a fair deal cannot be reached with producers.

At the top of their list of grievances: pay schedules for content distributed on the Internet and via other digital media. The guilds were screwed years ago when they agreed to a discounted pay schedule for DVDs, only to see that business blossom. And they’re determined not to make the same mistake. “The guild made a bad deal 20 years ago, and they’ve been angry ever since and they don’t want to do it again,” entertainment industry attorney Jonathan Handel told the Los Angeles Times. “That’s why we’re seeing a line drawn in the sand.”

Problem is, the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers doesn’t seem to be paying that line much mind. It claims there have been profound economic changes in the industry in recent years that make the terms and conditions of writing for digital platforms the guilds have proposed untenable. And hey, just because writers are paid residuals whenever their work is rebroadcast or sold on DVD doesn’t mean they should be paid residuals when their work is streamed over the Web–even if distribution costs are lower.

“[The guilds] continue to pursue numerous financial proposals that would result in astronomical increases in our costs,” said Nick Counter, president of the producers’ alliance. “Their proposals would also further restrict our ability to promote and market TV series and films and prohibit us from experimenting with programming and business models in new media. Instead of working toward solutions that would give the industry the flexibility it needs to meet today’s business challenges, [they continue] to hold onto demands that would impose unreasonable restrictions and unjustified costs.”