DEAL MADE TO PREVENT ACTOR STRIKE.

Byline: David R. Baker Daily News Staff Writer

Averting the possibility of an expensive strike, negotiators for Hollywood actors and producers announced Sunday they had reached tentative agreement on a new contract, even if one of the key issues between them remains unresolved.

The two sides put off deciding how to share profits from the booming foreign and cable markets, according to a joint statement from the Screen Actors Guild, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

Instead, the groups will conduct a two-year study to determine a formula for cable and foreign residuals - the portion of profits that go to actors.

``In order to avoid dividing and potentially paralyzing the industry over the issue of basic cable and foreign residuals, it was agreed that a joint study would be undertaken,'' the three organizations announced Sunday.

The tentative agreement will be submitted to directors of SAG and AFTRA for approval within the next few weeks. If they approve, the contract would face a vote of the full membership of both unions, totaling more than 130,000 performers.

Further details of the proposal were not released Sunday.

The tentative agreement apparently lifts the threat that Hollywood might suffer its first actors strike in 18 years. A walkout that started in July 1980 caused a massive disruption in the fall television schedule.

Since then, the entertainment business has experienced an unprecedented boom, fed by growth in the cable and foreign markets. The profits created by those markets lay at the heart of the recent contract talks, which began Feb. 19.

In essence, actors demanded a bigger share of the foreign and cable profits. They wanted twice the current residual rate for shows broadcast on foreign stations, a portion of the distributors' foreign revenues and an increase in the current 6 percent fees for domestic cable.

Producers wanted reductions in the domestic residuals for reruns, a lower salary structure for movies with budgets of less than $15 million, and a lower cap on pension and health contributions.

Although the current three-year contract does not expire until June 30, some observers had feared that failure to reach an agreement could lead studios to ditch projects set to start in the next three months, rather than face the disruption of a strike.

Others, however, had called the possibility of a strike remote, noting the potentially staggering economic losses both sides would suffer.

The Associated Press also contributed to this story.