Movement in the writers’ strike overnight: An anticipated draft deal (see below) went out to the WGA membership early this morning for discussion at meetings being held in New York and LA today. One major twist: the companies insist the writers call off the strike and return to work before taking a formal vote. Today’s meetings are being described as a “temperature taking” before the boards of the Writers Guild of America West and the Writers Guild of America East meet Sunday to vote on accepting the offer. The proposed resolution calls for the writers to return to work Monday—weeks before a formal membership vote on the actual offer. 

SEE ALSO: Updated: Writers Strike Sees A Breakthrough; Deal May Come Next Week; Modeled On DGA Pact

UnitedHollywood has the text of the letter sent early this morning with the deal draft summary.

NYT: “The tentative agreement became possible when the sides reached a handshake deal last week on a crucial term under which writers would be paid a fixed residual amounting to about $1,300 for the right to stream a television program online. In the third year of their contract, the writers would achieve one of their major goals—payments amounting to 2 percent of the distributor’s revenue from such streams.”

Difference from DGA deal: The writers managed to win a 2 percent share of a distributor’s gross in the third year of the contract, but the media companies scored their own victory by keeping a longer promotional window before the payments kick in, reports WSJ.

This agreement, if agreed to, is valid till May 1, 2011.  The PDF of the draft agreement is embedded below (RSS readers will have to click through).