Hollywood stars have launched talks with producers over a new contract, with the US entertainment industry still reeling from a costly 100-day screenwriters strike, union sources said on Wednesday.

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) said earlier this month that formal negotiations would begin Tuesday with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), and both sides confirmed the talks had started.

Negotiations were due to go into a second day on Wednesday, a joint statement said.

The contract setting the wages for actors working both in the film industry and in television expires on 30 June.

Earlier this year a long strike by the screenwriters guild paralysed Hollywood and led to millions of dollars in losses.

The US entertainment industry's most damaging dispute in 20 years pitted the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and AMPTP in a tussle over payments for content broadcast free or bought over the Internet.

A new deal finally drew up a scale of royalty payments for writers whose work is sold over the internet or streamed for free. Previously writers received nothing for online sales.

AFP