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  • All Blogs/ Entertainment Industry Insights: Jan. 17 2023

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New Projects - Award Winners & Noms - Production Tax Breaks - New AEA Audition Pilot Program

By Abigail Hardin, January 17, 2023

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Happy Tuesday, UTD!

Wow, there is so much to cover this week. I'm not going to waste any time. If there's one theme to this week it's money, money, money. Read below about the correlation between tax breaks and tv series cancelations, Upfront Week advertising disruptors, streaming price increases, and so much more.

In addition to all of the award news from this week, make sure to check out our coverage of the Artios Award Nominations. This is a great opportunity to connect with major casting directors. And read below about changes to Actors Equity's (AEA) EPA protocols with a brand new pilot program for virtual auditions.

Lastly, I hope you can make it to one of our upcoming workshops. We will be holding our ever popular SEEKING REPRESENTATION 101 free workshop twice in February. If you are looking to start a campaign for a new agent or manager you don't want to miss this one!

  • February 06, 2023 @ 7:00 PM EST — How to be the CEO of your Artistry with The League of Professional Theatre Women
  • February 09, 2023 @ 3:00 PM EST — SEEKING REPRESENTATION 101 (link TBA) with Ripley-Grier Studios
  • February 22, 2023 @ 3:00 PM EST — SEEKING REPRESENTATION 101 with Actors Connection

Alright, let's dive in! 🏊‍♀️

Award Season Winners & Noms

It's been a big week for awards season. Between Golden Globes, SAG Noms, and Critics Choice Awards, there's a lot to cover so we have grouped important articles by event. Take a look at the winners and nom lists as well as how these ceremonies function as a bellwether for the Oscars.

Golden Globes
SAG Nominations
Critics Choice Awards
Artios Awards - Film Nominations

Last week, The Casting Society announced the feature film nominees for its 38th annual Artios Awards. This marks the final batch of nominees to be announced. Nominations in the TV category were announced last October. Awards will be handed out in March.

Ellen Chenoweth and the team of Mary Vernieu & Bret Howe landed three noms each today — Chenoweth for DEEP WATER, THE SURVIVOR, and CAUSEWAY and Vernieu/Howe for GLASS ONION, THE MENU, and THE WHALE. Seven others scored two noms each today: Lucy Bevan, Kim Coleman, Sarah Halley Finn, Christi Soper Hilt, Avy Kaufman, Bernard Telsey, Natalie Lyon, and Kevin Reher.

Other nominated CDs of note: Gayle Keller, Douglas Aibel, Denise Chamian, Cindy Tolan, Carmen Cuba, Victoria Thomas, and many more. Check out the article for the full list of nominees.

As we mention every year around the Artios Awards, this is a great opportunity to reach out to the nominated casting directors and wish them congratulations on their recent nomination. Follow up again in March and congratulate the winners on their win. Click on their names above to go to their UTDA details. Make sure to visit the associated company page for even more contact info.

Production Tax Breaks
California Extending Tax Credits for Five Years

A projected $22.5 billion deficit has California Gov. Gavin Newsom proposing some belt-tightening and program cuts, but the financial sun is still shining bright on the state's more than $400 million film and television tax credits program. "The Budget proposes to extend the California Film Commission administered Film and Television Tax Credit Program at $330 million per year for five years beginning in 2025-26 (Program 4.0) and make it refundable prospectively for the new Program 4.0," says the proposal introduced by Newsom.

Around in a lesser sense since 2009, California's film and TV tax credits program was first introduced in its current, jobs-focused form in 2014. Renewed periodically, Newsom plumped up the program to $420 million for two years in 2021 in part to counter the economic effects of the pandemic and to attract more relocating series. With a long industry history but much smaller production bench compared with California, New York state also offers $420 million in film and TV tax credits. While British Columbia has a generous program that has attracted American productions to Vancouver and the surrounding region for decades, in the U.S. it is industry-thriving Georgia, which handed out $1.2 billion in credits in 2021, which is No. 1 in credits.

TV Talk 📺
Early Cancelations = Big Corporate Bucks 🤑

Have you noticed a trend lately where more and more shows are being canceled after production wraps but prior to airing? It seems crazy to spend countless thousands or millions only to scrap a show in the 11th hour. But apparently, there is money to be made in doing so. Networks and streamers can take a corporate tax break for scrapping shows prior to airing. 🤷‍♀️ This policy has been in effect for quite some time but has never been taken advantage of to the extent that it has been lately. This past year handfuls of shows were handed cancelations prior to airing such as AMC's DEMASCUS, INVITATION TO A BONFIRE, and the second seasons of 61ST STREET, PANTHEON, and Warner Bros' CHAD.

In a lengthy social media post, ROSWELL, NEW MEXICO creator Carina Adly MacKenzie addressed why such moves are hurting television writers. I highly encourage you to read her entire Twitter thread as it explains in detail why this is detrimental to creatives (and can be applied to actors).

And to balance out the conversation, FX boss John Landgraf broke down the recent trend of shows being canceled mid-production and old seasons being pulled off streaming services. According to Landgraf, as new technologies have emerged throughout the history of media, "there's a long process of optimizing how you tell stories and how you distribute stories through that technology." He compared today's glut of shows — 599 in 2022 according to FX's calculations — to the early days of Hollywood film studios, when they would churn out large numbers of films without much regard for quality or marketing. "Making fewer, bigger, longer movies and marketing them and distributing them and licensing them had a better economic impact than just flooding the zone with things that are consumed and then discarded," he said.

Have we reached "Peak TV"? ⛰

Staying with John Landgraf for a minute, According to FX Research, which has been counting the number of shows on TV since it got into the scripted game with THE SHIELD twenty years ago, there were 599 adult scripted original series across broadcast, cable and streaming services in 2022 — a new record. According to the FX numbers, the number is up 40 from 2021 (a 7 percent gain), when there 559 shows. That was a big jump from the COVID-impacted dip in 2020 of 493 shows. "In August I said it would be the 2020s you would find the market peak of a scripted scripted TV series TV series and that is still my bet, while noting with humility that I've been wrong on this prediction twice before," Landgraf said Thursday.

As we've spent some time talking about shows being canceled, here is a look at the TV series renewed in 2023.

Streaming Wars
Epix Rebrands to MGM+

Last week, Epix transformed into MGM+. The rebrand coincided with the season 3 premiere of GODFATHER IN HARLEM, MGM+ most successful title. Part of the rebrand, MGM+ Head Michael Wright plans to increase the streamer's volume to at least eight original series a year. "For most consumers, the decision to subscribe or not, or drop or not, is based on quantity, quality and value," says Wright, who previously worked as a programming executive at CBS and Turner. "People don't realize how many original series have now populated the service. And it's a new and even more robust library featuring a lot of the MGM classics, but other studio films as well… You know MGM, you love MGM. What a gift that we have that name, but we still have an obligation to surprise you with our storytelling, even in the context of this brand that we're trying to deliver on."

Kicking Down the "Upfront" Door

As if streamers hadn't disrupted the Television landscape enough already, One streaming giant is looking to kick down the door to pilot season "upfronts". Netflix plans to hold its own upfront presentation in New York's Paris Theater — which it owns — on May 17, smack dab in the middle of a stretch of days during which TV's biggest players make pitches of their own. Historically, during Upfront Week, traditional TV media companies try to sell the bulk of their ad inventory for their next programming cycle each year as part of the industry's "upfront" market. Now that Netflix offers an ad-supported tier, the streamer is looking to take a bite out of the money pie.

HBO Max Price Increase

Lastly, Warner Bros. Discovery must be feeling really good about its recent stock evaluation. So good, they feel comfortable with an HBO Max price increase for consumers effective immediately. The price increase comes at the same time as Warner Bros. Discovery poor user experience and major content removals from the streamer to save money and ahead of planned HBO Max/Discovery+ integration this spring. "This price increase of one dollar will allow us to continue to invest in providing even more culture-defining programming and improving our customer experience for all users," the company said in a statement.

Again I remind you last Tuesday, Warner Bros. Discovery, saw its shares jump 25% over five days and climbed up more than 8% from Monday's close, up more than 31% since the start of the year and at its highest price since Nov. 2. Such a good evaluation that Goldman Sachs analyst Brett Feldman went so far as to call the company their "favorite media stock". 🤨

AEA & SAG-AFTRA
Virtual Audition Protocols

In an email to members of Actors' Equity Association on Jan. 9, the union highlighted the start of a pilot program for Equity Principal Auditions (EPAs) and Equity Principal Interviews (EPIs) that will include in-person auditions as well as pre-recorded and live video submissions. Sign-ups for video submissions will open for each audition via "Casting Call" in the Equity member portal. This pilot program is a consequence of a new provision introduced in the recently ratified contract for Broadway and sit-down productions.

Shows participating in the program will have no fewer than two days of in-person auditions, which include 126 in-room slots. This will pair with the equivalent of no fewer than two days of 126 available slots for pre-recorded or live video submissions. For taped auditions, actors will receive a confirmation as to which casting professional viewed their work. Producers can choose to accept additional video submissions beyond the required minimum.

Negotiating Live Theatre On Film

The agreement reached between AEA and SAG-AFTRA over which union governed live-streamed theatre during the pandemic has now expired. In 2020 after a bitter dispute, the two unions reached a temporary agreement that allowed AEA to govern streaming theatre. The Agreement was extended for two six-month periods but expired at the end of 2022. There were talks between the unions, but no new agreement was reached. For theaters that entered into Equity contracts with streaming components in 2022, those streaming events can occur uninterrupted in 2023, according to Equity. It's everything that is agreed to in 2023 on where the issue arises.

However, in a provided statement, a SAG-AFTRA spokesperson made it seem like streaming is back in the SAG-AFTRA domain: "SAG-AFTRA has been pleased to support Actors Equity Association with this agreement during a period of great challenge to the live performance sector. We will of course continue our long-standing role representing performers for work streamed by theaters going forward."

New Non-Profit Aims to Stream More Theatre

Continuing on the streaming topic, Co-founders Jim Augustine and Oren Michels have announced the establishment of the all-new League of Live Stream Theater (LOLST), a nonprofit service intended to bring Broadway and regional theater productions to homes around the world. The organization will debut with the two-week simulcast of Second Stage's BETWEEN RIVERSIDE AND CRAZY, from Jan. 31 through Feb. 12.

The League is covering the full cost of the stream, which includes camera equipment and installation, an additional sound mix for viewers at home, the video expense, a broadcast director, distribution and digital rights management and marketing. And the League aims to do the same with all future streams. "We want to be able to shoulder all or most of the cost of these because it is a new thing," said Michels. "With our experience doing it [previously], we're able to do it with less risk and more understanding of what the outcome's going to be better than the companies themselves."

In fact, assuming the cost is foundational to the League. "The reason we're a nonprofit is we don't want to make money," said Michels. "We want to sustain what we're doing so we can bring this to as many theaters and as many shows as possible." And, though the cost falls to the League, the theater will share in the revenue.

Diversity / Inclusion & Equity
📣 Open Submissions

The Native American Media Alliance (NAMA), in partnership with A+E Networks, US Bank and One Small Planet, is accepting applications for the 8th Annual Native American TV Writers Lab. This initiative functions as a resource for industry personnel to work with Native Americans who have an authentic voice for film, television and new media. The Native American TV Writers Lab is an intensive virtual TV writing work-shop that prepares Native Americans for writing careers at major television networks. This lab is designed to address the lack of Native American writers in primetime network TV. The deadline to apply is February 13th.

The recently formed Theatre Producers of Color (TPOC) organization has announced the return of its annual Producing 101 program, which supports aspiring BIPOC producers through tuition-free information sessions. Applications are now open for the 11-week program, which covers the fundamentals of commercial producing, including financial models, development paths, scaled budgeting, and more.

Film & TV
Theatre
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