The Directors Guild of America (DGA) Thursday reached a new three-year pay deal with the main producer's organization, the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP), upping pressure on the striking Writers Guild of America (WGA) to end its 11 week strike that has disrupted film and TV production.

Under the terms of the deal, directors will be granted rights for residual payments for content that is downloaded or streamed over the internet.

"Now that those negotiations (with DGA) are completed, the AMPTP must return to the process of bargaining with the WGA," the writers' union said in a statement. "We hope that the DGA's tentative agreement will be a step forward in our effort to negotiate an agreement that is in the best interests of all writers."

Negotiations between the striking Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers have failed once again on Dec. 7 and talks broke off. The Writers Guild of America denied a request to waive the strike for the two most important award shows, the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes.

Also, WGA blocked the Academy from using clips from past Oscars shows during this year's ceremony, in addition to blocking writers from helping write host Jon Stewart's script.

Meanwhile, with the 65th Annual Golden Globes cancelled there are fears that the Oscars might have the same fate. However, Academy Awards executive producer Gil Cates said earlier this month that the show is still on. This year’s 80th edition is due to take place on February 24.

The Oscars were postponed only three times in the Academy history: first was in 1938 due to floods, than in 1968 when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, and in 1981 before the assassination attempt on President Reagan.

The WGA are pushing for more residuals from new media distribution (such films or TV shows sold online), while producers reject the guild's demands as unworkable and too expensive. Also, the WGA-requested compensation package for DVD sales would cost about $220 million over three years, a small fraction of the around $24 billion in revenues generated by U.S. DVD sales and rentals over the last year.

In 1988, 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. This time, billions have been lost, according to some estimates. It's enough to note that the motion picture and TV industry generates $30 billion in annual economic activity for Los Angeles County alone.