Television production in L.A. region drops 15.6%; overall location shoots flat
Television production in and around Los Angeles has continued to slide, keeping overall production numbers flat in the most recent quarter, according to a report released Tuesday from FilmL.A. Inc.
The nonprofit organization, which issues permits for Los Angeles and parts of L.A. County, reported that on-location production was down 0.4% for the three months ending June 30 (11,209 permitted production days) compared with the same period in 2011 (11,260 days).
Television shoots, which accounted for 30% of all production days in the quarter, showed the most worrisome decline. At the root of this downward trend is heightened competition from other states offering more enticing tax incentives to filmmakers as well as legislative battles about California’s own tax credit program.
“For many years, we’ve relied on television to backfill the hole left by the flight of feature film production from the L.A. region,” FilmLA President Paul Audley stated in the group’s report. “Television has been our bread and butter, but with Sacramento’s inaction to stem our losses, other states and countries are eating off our plate.”
-- Thomas Suh Lauder, Los Angeles Times