Another day, another step closer to a Writers Guild of America strike. Yesterday the existing contract between writers and producers expired, and tonight the WGA will meet to decide whether to keep threatening to strike or to actually walk out. We’ve been covering the escalating tensions for the last six months, so you might say we’ve done it to death, but, c’mon, that can’t really be true since a strike still hasn’t been authorized.

For background: A strike would first affect news-oriented comedy shows, which depend on writers. People associated with The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report, and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, for example, have told the Associated Press they’ll resort to re-runs. And as new episodes of all sorts of shows start to peter out, there are opportunities — as we’ve written many times — for online video to step in and fill people’s need for entertainment. It’s one of the more ironic twists of this battle, considering the writers’ negotiations center around revenue associated with their work being distributed on the Internet.

For further reading, see our coverage archive:

• Oct. 25: What Does a WGA Strike Mean For New Media?
• Oct. 21: Q&A: Ezra Sacks on Writers Guild Strike
• Oct. 19: WGA Rank and File Authorize Strike
• Oct. 16: Producers Back Down as Guild Ramps Up
• Oct. 12: Writers Guild Swears Off New Media
• Oct. 9: NTV in LA: Looming Strike Yields Toxic Slug-Fest
• July 20: Hollywood Strike: Good for Online Video, Bad for UGC?
• May 16: Would a Strike Force Talent Online?