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The resumption of the already interrupted television season is not looking good.

Both the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have walked away from the bargaining table after the latest round of negotiations, and neither side seems to be any closer than they were at the start of the strike more than a month ago.

"Today, after three days of discussions, the AMPTP came back to us with a proposal that included a total rejection of our proposal on Internet streaming of Dec. 3," said John F. Bowman, chairman of the WGA negotiating committee, in a letter. "They are holding to their offer of a $250 fixed residual for unlimited one-year streaming after a six-week window of free use. They still insist on the DVD rate for Internet downloads. They refuse to cover original material made for new media."

On top of the rejection, the AMPTP put some conditions on the offer, according to Bowman.

"The AMPTP demands we give up several of our proposals, including Fair Market Value (our protection against vertical integration and self-dealing), animation, reality, and most crucially, any proposal that uses distributor's gross as a basis for residuals," he said. "This would require us to concede most of our Internet proposal as a precondition for continued bargaining. The AMPTP insists we let them do to the Internet what they did to home video."

The key aspect of that so-called ultimatum is Fair Market Value, something that has put all of Hollywood's unions at odds with the studios. Sometimes, in selling properties to other outlets, studios will instead sell a property to another division within their own company at a highly cut rate, meaning potential residuals that would go to actors and writers and such are greatly reduced as the network is doing nothing more than shifting money from one side to the other. David Duchovny fought with Twentieth Century Fox during the run of "The X-Files" because the studio was selling the property to another one of its subsidiaries for substantially less than what the actor felt they could've received on the open market.

The studios, however, say it's not their fault negotiations aren't going anywhere.

"We're disappointed to report that talks between the AMPTP and WGA have broken down yet again," the studios said in a release. "Quite frankly, we're puzzled and disheartened by an ongoing WGA negotiating strategy that seems designed to delay or derail talks rather than facilitate an end to this strike. Union negotiators in our industry have successfully concluded 306 major agreements with the AMPTP since its inception in 1982. The WGA organizers sitting across the table from us have never concluded even one industry accord."

But enough of the chest beating. The AMPTP said its proposals would increase the average writer's salary to more than $230,000 a year, and that they have proved over the last five months that "we want writers to participate in producers' revenues, including in theatrical and television streaming, as well as other areas of new media. However, under no circumstances will we knowingly participate in the destruction of our business."

Bowman said the WGA was ready to make a counter offer early Friday evening when AMPTP representative Nick Counter informed the WGA they were leaving the negotiations until the writers issued a letter removing specific items from the table.

"Their Quixotic pursuit of radical demands led them to begin this strike, and now has caused this breakdown in negotiations," the AMPTP said. "We hope that the WGA will come back to this table with a rational plan that can lead us to a fair and equitable resolution to a strike that is causing so much distress for so many people in our industry and community."

Among the things the AMPTP claim the WGA is demanding include "full control over reality television and animation," meaning that writers who work on those types of media would be required to join the WGA and be represented in the collective bargaining agreements. The studios claim that "thousands of people in reality and animation have already chosen not to join the WGA."

The studios also say that the WGA is looking to restrict networks from airing any more reality programming unless they are distributed to the terms of a new WGA agreement. The studios say that would limit competition and could not hold up in court.

The AMPTP said that in terms of Internet compensation, it could actually cost studios more than they receive in revenue, which in effect could kill the online distribution models "before it ever gets started.

"These are the terms the WGA organizers demand for ending the strike -- money that doesn't exist, restrictions that are legally dubious and control over people who have refused to join their union," the AMPTP said. "Besides betraying a fundamental misunderstanding of the economics of new media, such as a streaming proposal that would require us to give them more money than we make ourselves, the WGA organizers are on an ideological mission far removed from the interests of their members."

The WGA, however, says they are ready to counter the studios offer right now, if only they would return to the table long enough to listen.

"We remain ready and willing to negotiate, not matter how intransigent our bargaining partners are, because the stakes are simply too high," Bowman said. "We were prepared to counter their proposal tonight, and when any of them are ready to return to the table, we're here, ready to make a fair deal."