Assembly Bill 2026 and Senate Bill 1197 were signed into law last week (9/28) by Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. to extend funding for California’s Film & Television Tax Credit Program. The two-year, $200 million extension ensures that tax credits will be available through fiscal year 2016-17.
The original five-year program enacted in 2009 was part of an economic stimulus package to increase film and TV production spending, jobs and tax revenues in California. Last year, the program was extended for a single year through fiscal 2014-15 when the Governor signed AB 1069 into law. The new two-year extension provides added continuity and certainty to a program that has proved successful.
Since it was enacted in 2009, the California Film & Television Tax Credit Program has helped keep scores of productions and tens of thousands of jobs in California. Based on spending estimates by approved film and TV projects, the program is responsible for generating an estimated $3.9 billion in direct spending statewide, including $1.3 billion in wages paid to 27,000 “below the line” crew members. The California Film Commission continues to administer the program.
The two-year extension calls for California to set aside $100 million each year for a total of $200 million to cover dozens of film and TV projects applying for credits that can amount to 20 to 25 percent of qualified production expenditures. Continuing to be excluded from eligibility for the tax credit are films with budgets of more than $75 million, as well as TV commercials.
Clearly, demand for the tax credit far exceeds supply. On June 1, the first day of this year’s program, 322 applications were filed for the credit. That’s an 83 percent increase over the 176 applications filed in 2011. Last year, 27 projects received the credit. This year, 28 spanning film and TV are in line to benefit from the program, with the rest on a waiting list.
Applications for the next fiscal year’s $100 million allocation of tax credits will be accepted starting June 1, 2013.
For more info on the incentives package, click here.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More