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News

December 8, 2014

Weekly Update from Film Ontario, December 8, 2014

A very busy time of year - and 2015 planning is already well under way for most of us.

Toronto Mayor John Tory made his first speech - and cites our industry as part of his economic plan. You can read it here.

And don't forget to include your company in the Interactive Ontario project, mapping the digital economy. Here's the link.

Looking forward to seeing many of you at our LA marketing event in January! Go Leafs!

Sarah Ker-Hornell
CEO & Executive Director

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Weekly Update from Kelly Graham-Scherer, Los Angeles Representative

There were lots of interesting articles to read this week, in no small part because the Los Angeles Times published an entire state-of-nation section on the television industry and where it's headed.

The Times section contained too many stories to present individually, so I have just highlighted a few key ones for this report. If you have the time I encourage you to click on the link below and navigate through the section, as it contains a wealth of interesting articles, as well as salient observations in the comments section.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-new-tv-full-coverage-htmlstory.html

How do we define television these days? The article below attempts to answer that question and in doing so yields an informative and engaging history of the medium.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-ca-tv-section-critics-definition-20141123-column.html#page=1

What will television look like in the future? The extensive feature below looks at how streaming has capsized the industry and the ways in which major programmers, with billions of dollars and their long-term survival at stake, have been shifting gears and are looking for ways to harness the power of digital media.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-tv-digital-streaming-20141123-story.html#page=1

Who is watching television these days? It's an important question in an industry which has built its economy on advertising to a measurable number of eyeballs. The article below looks at how the industry is racing to modernize its metrics in a multi-platform world.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-tv-section-ratings-20141123-story.html#page=1

A story this week from CBC news makes a provocative bookend to the L.A. Times pieces: as reported below, speaking at a recent industry event in Mexico City, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings predicted that broadcast TV will be dead by 2030.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/netflix-ceo-reed-hastings-says-broadcast-tv-will-be-dead-by-2030-1.2853604

Also catching my attention this week were a few articles regarding tax credits in jurisdictions against which Ontario competes for work.

Analysts in Maryland are urging lawmakers to scrap the state's film tax credit, arguing it hasn't benefited enough from the $62.5 million poured into television and movie companies since 2012. As reported in the Baltimore Sun below, Maryland is facing a $600 million budget shortfall and reports are that all but 2 percent of tax credit money since 2012 went to just two productions: HBO's Veep and Netflix's House of Cards.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-film-tax-hearing-20141202-story.html

Once again the U.K. has upped the ante in its quest to lure even more film and television production across the pond. As reported in Variety below, the U.K. government confirmed this week that it will extend its existing production tax credits for film, animation and high-end TV to include children’s live-action programming.
http://variety.com/2014/tv/news/u-k-extends-tax-credits-to-cover-childrens-live-action-tv-shows-1201369668/

In feature news this week the Times had a fascinating look at the challenges Universal will face marketing the Angelina Jolie-helmed film Unbroken in China and Japan, which are the number two and three box office markets in the world, respectively. The article below is an interesting reminder of how increasing globalization will continue to affect how stakeholders produce and market content.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-ct-unbroken-japan-china-20141130-story.html#page=1

And finally, the Hollywood Reporter shared the good news this week that the star-studded upcoming Warner Brothers feature Suicide Squad will shoot in Toronto this spring.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/david-ayers-suicide-squad-shoot-753015

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