A HISTORIC Hollywood writers’ strike ended today following five months of action after the Writers Guild of America (WGA) approved an agreement with studios.

Governing boards of the union and their negotiating committee voted to accept the deal on Tuesday, giving workers a raise of between 3.5 and 5 per cent, depending on their positions.

The three-year agreement includes significant wins in the main areas writers had fought for: compensation, length of employment, staffing levels and control of artificial intelligence.

The union had sought minimum increases in pay and future residual earnings from shows of between 5 and 6 per cent while the studios had offered between 2 and 4 per cent.

The WGA also negotiated new residual payments based on the popularity of streaming shows, where writers will get bonuses for being a part of the most popular shows on Netflix, Max and other services, a proposal studios initially rejected.

Many writers on picket lines had complained that they were not properly paid for helping create heavily watched programmes.

Under the contract, raw, AI-generated storylines will not be regarded as “literary material,” a term in their contracts for scripts and other story forms a screenwriter produces.

This means they will not be competing with computers for screen credits.

And AI-generated stories will not be considered “source” material, contractual language for the novels, video games or other works that writers may adapt into scripts.

Still-striking members of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFRA) returned to the picket lines earlier on Tuesday, expressing optimism following the WGA deal.

Actor and SAG-AFRA member Marissa Cueva said: “Knowing that at least one of us has gotten a good deal gives a lot of hope that we will also get a good deal.”