Tax Incentives Won't Solve Hollywood's Problems
Andy Marken March 18, 2025
0 Comments
Taking the wrong boy was a lucky break. In other words, this doesn't count. But you have to pay anyway. You're a fool to pay, but pay you must. Ginjiro Takeuchi, High and Low, Toho Studios, 1963
California, or more specifically LA (Los Angeles), or even more specifically Hollywood, has been the center of the video content industry since C.B. DeMille directed/shot the first feature-length movie in the area in 1913.
It took ten years before city fathers christened the area with its now famous (infamous) Hollywood sign (originally Hollywoodland but )
Since then, the town has been the self-anointed movie/show capital of the world.
For years, it did an outstanding job of hiding secrets and hyping the overnight success of stars, directors/producers, production crew members and post-production magicians who stuck it out and survived.
TV was going to be the movie industry's demise, but it only boosted the industry.
The networks needed content to fill their weekly schedules with scripted/unscripted series, talk/game shows, ad work, movies, stuff.
Nearly everyone with talent, expertise and ability was working.
The town was running on all cylinders and quickly became the center of the creative content industry while controlling as much as 40 percent of the world's video content.
People stood in lines to get their seats in theater seats. Other folks turned on their sets the minute they got home and watched whatever was on until they dragged themselves into their beds. What no studio head would tell Wall Street, his (yes, it was usually a male) shareholders or the public at large is that it is at best a marginally profitable business.
Coin Flip - The content industry promotes its major hits (moneymakers) like crazy while quickly overlooking the red ink projects but it's about a 50/50 chance of a film/show making money.
People cost money. Equipment costs money. Studio/location shoots cost money. Sets/lighting/electrical cost money. Feeding folks costs money. Hyping the shows/movies costs money. Money costs money.
Source - Warner Bros
It's only because studios have some of the most creative accountants who do things with numbers, columns, rules and regulations that enable them to make Wall Street/shareholders happy and keep their bosses out of jail.
The studio heads were free to hob nob with the rich, famous, politically connected people who like to associate with folks in the fun, profitable business.
Okay, maybe just a kinda' fun business, but it's the best paying job studio execs could find.
None of them gave much thought to the guy in Silicon Valley who determined he could sign people up to download shows/movies from the internet so they could watch the stuff when they wanted, where they wanted and on the screen they wanted.
In fact, when Reed Hastings switched from sending discs to subscribers in red envelopes to streaming, they probably said, Sure we'll license our stuff to his little company and make even more money because folks want it, we got it. After all, we rule the creative universe!
Under Hastings and Ted Sarandos and later Sarandos/Greg Peters, home entertainment changed.
As FX's CEO, Fred Landgraf, has said they marked the beginning of the slow demise of peak TV.
With that modest beginning, Netflix had more than a decade to spend at a loss, build scale (capturing an estimated 80 percent of households in the Americas and then move internationally) and achieve profitability.
Studios and networks had become masters of theatrical distribution, syndication sales/channel programming.
But those channels are different from building a streaming platform and making it work efficiently, effectively.
At the same time, they often had to do it to the detriment of their proven money sources.
Despite the streaming red ink, they were learning rapidly, painfully and making inroads until the year-long pandemic.
Then they were hit with the six-month plus strikes of the WGA (Writers Guild of America), SAG/AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) and associated trade unions.
Source - Paramount
The strikes delivered major concessions/agreements for the working stiffs and the union leaders about their victories and were ready for people to go back to work.
The problem is the world has changed over the years and most rapidly in recent times.
Global Entertainment - Probably from the outset, Netflix set its goal of being not just a video service for people in the Americas but for folks around the world. They knew great films/shows ignore country borders.
As quickly as two years after Netflix began streaming services in the Americas, they made it known they were going to be a global streaming video service.
They left few countries off their map - Syria, China, North Korea - and shortly after that the Russians found it difficult to watch their films/shows.
Today, they have 84.8M subscribers in the Americas and more than 283M globally.
One of the key agreements to deliver entertainment in the 190 countries was that 30-40 percent of the projects had to be created/produced locally.
No prob!
Global Facilities - In countries and cities around the globe, new modern film studios are being built incorporating advanced technologies. At the same time, countries are training their citizens in the latest creative/production techniques to attract projects such as Hungary's Korda Studios (l) and Dubai Studio City (r).
While studios and networks had focused on investing in projects, not facilities, many of the studios/sets were showing their age.
However, organizations and governments had been busy building new state-of-the-art facilities in England, France, Poland, the Middle East,
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
08/09/2026
Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) has announced a multi-year agreement with A E...
08/09/2026
Spectra Logic today announced the availability of Media Insight, a new capabilit...
08/09/2026
Rogers Communications and Quebecor have announced a 12-year sublicensing agreement for French-language national NHL games beginning with the 2026-27 season. TVA...
08/09/2026
Skyline Communications and Bridge Technologies will demonstrate two integrations...
08/09/2026
Boland Communications will make the European debut of its 4K55HDR7SNB 55-inch super-narrow-bezel monitor at IBC2026 (Stand 12.C57, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-1...
08/09/2026
Ateme and Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) have announced a collaboration comb...
08/09/2026
Haivision has joined the IBC Accelerator Media Innovation Programme as part of t...
08/09/2026
Blackmagic Design has announced price reductions on its PYXIS 6K and Cinema Camera 6K models, effective immediately through Blackmagic Design resellers worldwid...
08/09/2026
AI-Media will demonstrate its LEXI Suite at IBC2026 (Booth 5.C34, September 11-1...
08/09/2026
Bitmovin and Ad Insertion Platform (AIP) have announced the first live deploymen...
08/09/2026
Grass Valley will demonstrate story-centric media workflows at IBC2026 (Booth 9.A01, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), connecting newsroom production, content ma...
08/09/2026
M2A Media and Ateme have announced a partnership integrating Ateme's video processing solutions into M2A Media's MediaToAnywhere platform for live sport...
08/09/2026
Ikegami will exhibit at IBC2026 (Stand 12.A31, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), including a Day 1 introduction of new cameras in the UNICAM XE series. Additiona...
08/09/2026
Broadcast industry analysts will be gathering plenty of insights at the 2026 IBC Show this weekend in Amsterdam, but Caretta Research has offered up some though...
08/09/2026
SENSHI and DAZN have announced a global broadcast partnership that will bring SENSHI's live events free to viewers in more than 200 markets. The partnership...
08/09/2026
New architecture built with Evertz will bring 4K HDR to Monday Night Football, N...
08/09/2026
Built for rap producers, by rap producers
Sauceware Audio, the independent plug-in company founded by Grammy-nominated producer Jacob (Travis Scott, 21 Sava...
08/09/2026
Classic Sound Techniques design revived
Warm Audio's latest release delivers a meticulous recreation of the preamp circuitry employed by the Sound Techn...
08/09/2026
Latest soft synth inspired by the Memorymoog
XILS Lab have just launched a software instrument that draws its inspiration from Moog's iconic Memorymoog,...
08/09/2026
The Airport Chaplain takes off as SBS's biggest launch of 2026
8 September, 2026
Media releases
1.67 million viewers on National Total TV to date
Best...
08/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/09/2026
Mo-Sys, the world-leading developer of virtual production, camera robotics and image tracking technology, has completed a business restructuring, which has incl...
08/09/2026
New York, September 8, 2026 The TSAmediaHUB audiovisual contribution and distribution infrastructure developed by Telef nica's Audiovisual Services area re...
08/09/2026
Expanded Riyadh operation brings Asharq and Thmanyah services together on a resilient on-premises Pebble platform.
Pebble, the leading automation, content mana...
08/09/2026
Techex, a pioneering leader in live video workflows, will showcase its broadest software feature set to date at IBC 2026 (Stand 2.B45), extending its lead in so...
08/09/2026
Visitors to Grass Valley's booth at IBC2026 will be introduced to new Framelight X capabilities that connect content acquisition, management, editing and pu...
08/09/2026
BCNEXXT will showcase the latest evolution of Vipe at IBC2026 (Stand 2.B09), introducing a series of innovations designed to deliver higher-quality audience exp...
08/09/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Ad Insertion Platform (AIP), a leading innovator in advanced ad insertion technologies, to...
08/09/2026
Brainstorm, a leading manufacturer of real-time graphics and augmented and virtual production, is announcing a major package of enhancements to its Suite 7 soft...
08/09/2026
Big Blue Marble is supporting TDF, French infrastructure and network operator, broadcasting Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) and radio services, as a techno...
08/09/2026
Agents work inside a single production environment, from incoming wire copy to a live studio show...
08/09/2026
Building on their strategic partnership, Ceeblue and Layercake make the unthinkable possible: scalable sub-second streaming over standard DRM, SSAI, and CDN wor...
08/09/2026
Brainstorm, a leading manufacturer of real-time graphics, augmented and virtual production, is completing the environment for fast-paced broadcast production wi...
08/09/2026
A SaaS portfolio built to work together, helping operators grow audiences, monetise smarter and run leaner, on their own terms
At IBC 2026 (stand 1.B49) Synam...
08/09/2026
Accedo, global provider of video streaming software and services, has been selected by PlayOn Sports, a national leader in high school sports technology, to exp...
08/09/2026
LiveU, the leader in live IP-video solutions, is enabling The Associated Press to take global newsgathering to the next stage with intelligent connectivity and ...
08/09/2026
Mediagenix, a global leader in smart content solutions to profitably connect the right content to the right audience, today announced the latest evolution of it...
08/09/2026
Compact, power-efficient X Platform performance brings broadcast-grade reliability and ultra-low latency to space-constrained remote production (REMI) workflows...
08/09/2026
Zixi, the leader in live video delivery and workflow orchestration, and Kiloview, a leading provider of professional IP video encoding and decoding solutions, t...
08/09/2026
Collaboration gives content owners scalable CDN capacity and broadcasters enhanced flexibility, including for C-band transition planning
Quortex today announce...
08/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/09/2026
Telos Alliance and Pluxbox Announce Dynamic Media Facility Integration Partnersh...
08/09/2026
J nger Audio Showcases Industry-First S-ADM Cloud Workflow at IBC 2026
Search
Dolby, MainConcept, Techex and J nger Audio will showcase the industry's ...
08/09/2026
Tuesday 8 September 2026
Sky Go gets a major upgrade for Sky Glass and Sky Stream customers
Today, Sky launches a new version of the Sky Go app for Sky Glass ...
08/09/2026
Documentary thriller simulating a Russian attack on UK soil will culminate in a live final episode reuniting the playersTuesday 8 September 2026
Trailer releas...
08/09/2026
Tuesday 8 September 2026
Jamie Demetriou and Amelia Dimoldenberg to host next t...
08/09/2026
Wuppertal September 8, 2026
Riedel Introduces New OnAir Headset PlatformRiedel Communications today announced the launch of its new OnAir headset platform, a...
Tax Incentives Won't Solve Hollywood's Problems 
