The viewing public may soon find themselves with a lot more time on their hands, and a lot fewer new TV shows and movies to watch.

That’s because the specter of a writers strike — which would shut Hollywood productions — is a step closer after the Writers Guild of America announced Monday that a walkout has been authorized in a vote by its members, with 96% support.

The strike may start as soon as next week; the current three-year contract expires on May 1. Contract negotiations between the union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers — which represents studios and networks — are scheduled to resume Tuesday. Both sides say they are hopeful a deal can be reached this week.

“I voted to authorize the leaders of my union to call a strike that I desperately don’t want,” wrote John Eisendrath, a writer and executive producer on CBS Corp.’s US:CBS “The Blacklist,” in a Los Angeles Times op-ed Monday, in which he claimed that Hollywood writers’ wages have been “stagnant for a generation.”

The last writers strike was in 2007-08, and lasted 100 days. Its effects included shortened TV seasons, delayed movie productions and a heavy financial toll on both sides.

“The companies are committed to reaching a deal at the bargaining table that keeps the industry working,” the producers alliance said in a statement Monday. It noted that the last strike cost writers a combined $287 million in compensation.

Compensation and benefits are the sticking point in contract negotiations, with the writers guild seeking pay raises and better health benefits from studios and networks, who they say are reaping vast profits. The writers are also seeking a new pay structure to reflect the shift toward streaming. Most TV writers are paid per episode; but as the business model shifts from 22-episode network seasons to 12-episode seasons on streaming services, there are fewer paydays.

The first casualties of a strike would be late-night talk shows and daytime soap operas, which would cease production. With the current network TV season nearly over, the effect on new shows likely would not be seen until summer. New seasons of popular shows shooting new seasons in April and May, such as AMC’s “The Walking Dead” and Netflix Inc.’s NFLX, -0.05% “Jessica Jones,” would be delayed. Fall shows usually start filming during the summer, so a prolonged strike could delay the entire season. A handful of highly anticipated shows, such as HBO’s “Game of Thrones” and Showtime’s revived “Twin Peaks,” have already wrapped up production on new seasons, and would air as usual.

Since movies have a different production schedule, the impact at theaters likely would not be felt until later in the year and into 2018.