Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Tax Incentives Won't Solve Hollywood's Problems

19/03/2025

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,
LINK: https://creativecow.net/tax-incentives-wont-solve-hollywoods-problems/...
See more stories from creativecow

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

01/06/2026

Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026

January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026 Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...

02/05/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Search, Faster Editing, and an AI-Ready Foundation for Modern Media

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

01/05/2026

NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to Integrate Dolby's Full Suite of Premium Picture and Sound Innovations

January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...

09/04/2026

Hearst Taps Merzigo to Expand Presence on YouTube, Facebook

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

09/04/2026

Fox Jumps Into Prediction Markets with Kalshi Integration

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

09/04/2026

NAB Show: Kokusai Denki To Feature New, Affordable 4K Broadcast Camera

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

09/04/2026

Corus Taps Appear for IP-First Operations

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

09/04/2026

2026 NAB Show Exhibitor Insights: Big Blue Marble

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

09/04/2026

FCC Extends Audible Crawl Rule Waiver for 18 Months

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

09/04/2026

Pliant Technologies Showcases Expanded Accessories at NAB...

New Charging, Connectivity, and Mounting Solutions Now Available LAS VEGAS, APRIL 8, 2026 Pliant Technologies will highlight a range of new accessories at th...

09/04/2026

Media Links Brings Ultra Resilient IP Transport Proven at...

As live production continues its shift to IP, the challenge is no longer adoption it's reliability. At NAB Show 2026 (Booth W2033), Media Links will demon...

09/04/2026

QuickLink Launches StudioPro Town Hall at 2026 NAB Show

QuickLink, a leading provider of award-winning video production and remote guest contribution solutions, launches its new AI-powered add-on for its StudioPro p...

09/04/2026

The Hive Group Releases White Paper on the FCC Upper C-Ba...

The Hive Group has published a new white paper, No Safe Harbor: Why the FCC's Upper C-Band Auction Demands Early Action from Broadcasters ahead of NAB Sho...

09/04/2026

Saranyu Technologies Renews VisualOn Optimizer VoD Subscr...

Saranyu Technologies today announced the renewal of its Optimizer VoD subscription with VisualOn. The announcement coincides with NAB Show 2026, taking place Ap...

09/04/2026

April 08, 2026

New technique for synthesizing branched molecules could accelerate the development of future medicines Scripps Research chemists solve a longstanding problem in...

08/04/2026

SVG College Sports Media Awards 2026: Entry Deadline is Monday, April 13

The deadline to enter the 18th Annual SVG College Sports Media Awards in association with NACDA is rapidly approaching! Submit your entries to this year's c...

08/04/2026

SVG Campus Shot Callers: Trever Sheets, Senior Director, ACC Network, Virginia Tech

The Pittsburgh product helps lead more than 100 annual ESPN broadcasts as part o...

08/04/2026

SVG Sit-Down: Harmonic's Jean Macher on Turning Live Sports Content Into a Smarter Monetization Engine

Dynamic ad insertion, AI-based technologies, programmatic advertising are some o...

08/04/2026

Announcing the 2026 Fellows for the Sundance Institute Cultural Impact Residency on Sundance Collab

Seven Fellows Selected for Second Year of Residency in Honor of Social Justice L...

08/04/2026

From Tokyo to the World: Watch Bad Bunny's Billions Club Live Concert on Spotify

On March 7, Bad Bunny made history with his first-ever performance in Asia, taki...

08/04/2026

De Tokio para el mundo: Mira el concierto Billions Club Live de Bad Bunny en Spotify

El 7 de marzo, Bad Bunny hizo historia con su primera presentaci n en Asia, subi...

08/04/2026

Tube Lab from Fuse Audio Labs

New channel strip plug-in revealed The latest plug-in to be added to the Fuse Audio Labs line-up emulates a selection of vintage hardware units, combining c...

08/04/2026

Blue Cat Audio release Axiom 2.3

Guitar & bass multi-effects software overhauled Blue Cat Audio's flagship guitar and bass multi-effects software has recently received a significant upd...

08/04/2026

Merging Technologies launch Pyramix 16

PanNoir mixer integration, Dolby Atmos Renderer & more Merging Technologies have just launched Pyramix 16, the latest major update to their renowned DAW sof...

08/04/2026

Updating QUARTZ Router Module Firmware Over-The-Air

Applicable Products Part number Description QUARTZ-22-LTE (EU) Dual Port Dual SIM LTE Router (EU) QUARTZ-COMPACT-11-LTE (EU) Single Port Compact LTE ...

08/04/2026

YEP September 2025 Newsletter (2)

The September 19, 2025 YEP Newsletter highlights a group visit to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, where participants explored exhibits showcasing the art...

08/04/2026

Proven On Orbit: L3Harris Congratulates Missile Defense Agency for Receiving Top Defense Honor for HBTSS

The L3Harris HBTSS satellite is proven on orbit, successfully demonstrating trac...

08/04/2026

From Earth to Mars: Resilient Communications Powering the Space Economy

Image Credit: NASA. Artist rendering of a space communications satellite in orbit, representative of the resilient, multiband infrastructure supporting mission ...

08/04/2026

Precision in Practice: Flight Test Confirms Key Air-to-Air Capabilities

Latest evaluation validates image quality, Inertial Navigation System performance and long-range tracking in operational flight conditions....

08/04/2026

Gen Alpha Leads Shift to AI-Powered Entertainment Search, Discovery and Recommendations

New Gracenote study finds behavioral change well underway, but trust in AI-gener...

08/04/2026

Media Links to Focus on IP Transport Solutions at 2026 NAB Show

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

08/04/2026

Telestream and Mimir Integration Facilitates Real-Time Pr...

Integration eliminates ingest bottlenecks by ensuring content is immediately usable across cloud and hybrid editorial workflows. See it at NAB 2026. Nevada Cit...

08/04/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia Bringing...

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the commercial availability of Dalia, its media-aware, agentic AI...

08/04/2026

Synamedia unveils Senza Ignite to transform deployed devi...

Leading video software provider Synamedia today announced Senza Ignite, a cloud-based platform that transforms existing connected devices through a single firmw...

08/04/2026

Appear works with Corus to transform national news contri...

Modernised architecture increases operational control and agility, while reducing cost and simplifying nationwide media transport across affiliates and news bur...

08/04/2026

LynTec to Showcase High Density Power Control Solutions f...

Company to Feature DMX Dual Relay, High-Density 48-Channel Relay Panels, and New Private Label Power Program LynTec, a leading manufacturer of innovative ele...

08/04/2026

BCE integrates BCNEXXT Vipe to power cloud playout in Med...

Broadcasting Center Europe (BCE), a European media technology and services partner, today announces a technology partnership with BCNEXXT, a Netherlands-based c...

08/04/2026

Encompass Strengthens Global Media Operations with Expans...

Encompass Digital Media today announced the expansion of its Master Control Room (MCR) facility in Riga, Latvia, establishing it as one of the most advanced and...

08/04/2026

Synamedia lights up Las Vegas with innovations that will...

Leading video solutions provider Synamedia is back at The 2026 NAB Show with innovations that connect tomorrows audiences today. On display will be a range of t...

08/04/2026

COW Jobs: Director Needed for WWII Indie Docudrama

COW Jobs: Director Needed for WWII Indie Docudrama Brie Clayton April 8, 2026 0 Comments Director Needed for WWII Indie Docudrama March 17, 2026COW ...

08/04/2026

ESPN Expands Global Reach on Disney+

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

08/04/2026

Broadcast Industry Initiatives Promise To Speed Adoption of ST 2110

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

08/04/2026

Remembering Television's Role in the U.S. Bicentennial

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

08/04/2026

Synamedia Unveils AI by Quortex

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

08/04/2026

Carrie Healey Joins NAB as Vice President of Communications

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

08/04/2026

Amagi Launches Newspulse

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

08/04/2026

Marshall Electronics Unveils CV376 NDI HX3 HDMI POV Camer...

Marshall Electronics introduces its latest POV camera with the new CV376 Compact NDI |HX3 HDMI POV Camera at NAB 2026 (Booth C8339). Designed for versatile 4K c...