“The news is broken, we may not be able to put the pieces back together,” former NCS White House Correspondent Jim Acosta informed a packed Burbank City Hall on Friday, warning of the rise of leisure trade oligarchs and “media domination.”
“We need to talk about busting up big media,” Acosta insisted. “This is not America what we’re seeing now.”
Citing a “danger to our democracy,” Acosta known as Donald Trump’s attacks on the media “an assault on our freedom of speech … taking us down the road of Putin and China to state-controlled media.” An previous and fixed thorn in Trump’s paw, Acosta definitely had one thing to say about David Ellison’s pending $111 billion buy of Warner Bros Discovery – the homeowners of NCS.
Taking a swing at “partisan hacks” working CBS News and the likelihood of more job losses like we saw today, and “self-censoring,” the journalist was talking Friday at Sen. Adam Schiff’s “Lights, Camera, Competition”: Promoting American Film Production occasion within the former residence of the Tonight Show.
With an occasion lineup that included The Pitt’s Noah Wyle, IATSE president Matthew Loeb, California Attorney General Rob Bonta (who’s investigating the Paramount-WBD deal), longtime manufacturing incentive proponent Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA) and HBO alum Rep. Laura Friedman (D-CA) in attendance, the gathering toggled its break up focus. At one level, as the advantages of a federal tax incentive have been debated, Acosta threw within the concept of a tax credit for “independent journalism” to show the consolidation and ideological tide.
With that, whereas there are few issues on which Trump and Schiff agree, each are on the identical web page in relation to protecting Hollywood manufacturing within the U.S. However, on the identical time, the MAGA kingpin and the Democrat who reps Hollywood are elsewhere it appears in relation to Paramount merging with Warner Bros Discovery.
Ellison has promised editorial independence for NCS, however with the course CBS has gone beneath its information editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, these pledges strike many because the Paramount CEO saying what he must say to get his deal authorized. Warning concerning the potential penalties of Skydance founder Ellison and his father, Oracle’s Larry Ellison, proudly owning each CBS and NCS, Acosta’s remarks picked up on a placard quoting Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week criticizing the media over its Iran battle protection.
“The public can sniff out what’s going on here,” Acosta proclaimed, pointing to a latest media hit checklist from Trump final week and payouts and different strikes seemingly undertaken to placate the White House. They are “a shakedown to a wannabe dictator,” Acosta added, gathering a spherical of applause within the room.
Turning to the will for a federal program although by no means letting the merger out of his sight, Schiff declared that the tough decline in U.S. manufacturing “is not a Hollywood backlot story, it’s a Main Street story.”
Pushing for Congress to behave on a federal program, Schiff wasn’t alone in pushing for better initiative from DC to enrich tax credit score packages that exist in states like California, New York and Georgia. “Without a comprehensive federal policy response, the U.S. risks turning its back on a signature American industry,” IATSE chief Loeb mentioned, with The Pitt’s Wyle by his aspect.
“Federal policymakers must act to level the playing field and make the U.S. film and television industry more competitive on the global stage,” Loeb added (learn L his full remarks under). “A globally aggressive, labor-based incentive for U.S. manufacturing that dietary supplements state incentives is crucial to return and keep movie and tv jobs in America.
As numerous audio system differed over whether or not it was too late to show issues round, in addition to the prospects of AI, Schiff famous the latest lack of greater than 41,000 trade jobs in L.A. County and the way 45% of American TV and movie manufacturing was shot outdoors the nation in 2025.
Looking on the significance of state packages and a proposed 15%-19% federal program, Emmy winner Wyle added: “It is vital to the strength of our industry and our city to support these incentives. It’s an investment on our city’s most precious commodity and biggest asset. It’s an investment in our people.” (Read his full remarks under.)
“It’s going to be all about the dollars,” Loeb mentioned, slicing to the chase of a federal movie/TV incentive program. “It’s all about money at the end of the day.”
Here are Wyle’s full remarks:
I’m grateful to Senator Schiff for extending the invitation to talk with you in the present day and assist him in his effort to enact a Federal tax incentive for U.S primarily based movie and tv manufacturing.
As an Angelino with generational roots to this metropolis and a “seasoned” member of its inventive neighborhood – advocacy for Los Angeles primarily based manufacturing is one thing near my coronary heart. Over the final 6 years the combination impact of initiatives leaving the state looking for tax credit, the pandemic, and final yr’s fires- has been a close to cratering of our as soon as thriving trade. We misplaced 42,000 movie and television jobs in LA county between 2022 and 2024. And As of final yr high-budget productions are down 43% .
Admittedly, It’s actually arduous to shoot a television present in LA. And it’s actually costly. Prohibitively so.
Unless… you undertake an financial mannequin – which takes full benefit of the CA tax incentive – and in our case asks personnel to simply accept reductions in charges within the hopes that the hypothesis will repay.
I used to be requested to take part in in the present day’s listening to – to inform a hit story. The Pitt has blessedly develop into proof of that speculative idea and I’m joyful to report- will start capturing season 3 this summer time – A rising tide has lifted all boats.
In season 1, beneath the three.0 tax program, our present acquired a 20% tax rebate on many non-Above-the-line prices. Our sample funds per episode was roughly $6,659,221. Based on that gross quantity we bought a rebate of $767, 751 per episode.
Our whole season 1 spend was roughly $99, 888, 000. After the rebate our adjusted spend was $88, 372, 050. We have been capable of save over 11 million {dollars}, roughly the price of two full episodes.
How did we spend the cash?
72% went to labor. Local forged and crew compensation. That’s roughly $62, 000,000. We had 590 full time and half time crew jobs.
The remaining 28% was spent with native distributors on items and providers. That’s about $24,000,000 spent on native companies. $4.6 million went to background performers. Another million and a half on meals providers. That’s direct affect.
Then there’s the oblique impact- the ripple impact of that money- which in flip stimulates extra financial exercise. It’s estimated that the procurement related to The Pitt season one stimulated a $22.6 million contribution to the State’s GDP alongside the home provide chain. The present’s expenditure on inputs of products and providers from domestically primarily based suppliers additionally stimulated 150 full time jobs throughout California.
The induced affect of our forged and crew spending together with the employees alongside the provision chain in flip stimulated much more financial progress. It’s estimated that the wage-financed spending of native manufacturing crews and employees at domestically primarily based suppliers stimulated $40.3 million towards California’s GDP in the course of the interval of manufacturing.
The backside line is that the estimated whole affect of the primary season of The Pitt contributed round $125 million in direction of the State’s GDP throughout our manufacturing interval.
That’s proof of idea. It is important to the power of our trade and our metropolis to assist these incentives. It’s an funding on our metropolis’s most treasured commodity and largest asset. It’s an funding in our folks.
Here are Loeb’s remarks:
Good morning Senator Schiff & Representatives. I need to thanks for the invitation to take part on this vital listening to on behalf of the over 170,000 behind-the-scenes leisure employees of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE).
Film and tv manufacturing creates good-paying, family-sustaining union jobs, and it’s essential that Paramount Skydance’s proposed buy of Warner Brothers Discovery be evaluated from the angle of American employees.
The lack of any independently working producer and distributor of movie and tv content material might have profound impacts for leisure employees. Over the final decade, we’ve seen American studios offshoring manufacturing at alarming charges. As regulators and elected officers think about the Paramount-Warner mixture, we’re asking that exact consideration be paid to making sure that home manufacturing doesn’t endure additional.
When main firms merge, employees usually pay the worth first. IATSE’s place is that regulators ought to think about the impact of consolidation on labor markets, not solely on shopper costs. In 2023, IATSE and the Directors Guild of America (DGA) issued joint feedback in assist of revised FTC-DOJ Merger Guidelines – an vital course correction that restored the federal authorities’s skill to assessment the affect of consolidation and vertical integration within the leisure trade on our members and different employees within the movie and tv trade.
Past studio mergers have meant fewer jobs and disruptions to manufacturing. Redundancies following the Warner Bros.-Discovery and Disney-Fox mergers led to reductions in workforce which have the potential to happen downstream from a Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger.
If Paramount Skydance is profitable of their proposed acquisition of Warner Brothers Discovery, our main curiosity is holding them accountable to the commitments they’ve made to Californian and American employees. CEO David Ellison has made a public dedication that Paramount Studios and Warner Bros. Studios will every produce a minimal of 15 high-quality function movies per yr, for a complete of not less than 30 function movies yearly. That degree of manufacturing is required within the United States if IATSE members are to proceed to have the ability to make a dwelling within the trade.
Work within the leisure trade is precarious. It is primarily venture, or “gig” primarily based, that means most IATSE employees carry out freelance work outdoors of what’s thought-about “regular employment.” We’ve been within the “gig” financial system since 1893. Project-based work in movie and tv manufacturing could be as quick as a day for a business shoot, a number of months for a movie manufacturing, or a pair years for a recurring tv sequence. Entertainment employees can have a number of, if not dozens, of employers every year and people employees depend on project-based job alternatives to assist themselves and their households.
Employment for below-the-line employees in Hollywood is down some 45 million hours per yr since 2022. According to the January 2026 ProdPro report, the U.S. share of world manufacturing has dropped from 52% to 38% throughout the identical interval.
The American movie and tv trade faces an pressing menace from worldwide competitors. Foreign governments have efficiently lured movie and tv productions, and the multitude of jobs they create, away from the United States with aggressive tax incentives and subsidies. Films meant for preliminary launch within the U.S. are more and more being shot abroad — and American employees are paying the worth.
In just some years, IATSE members have misplaced tens of 1000’s of jobs throughout the United States. That’s 1000’s of households, small companies, and communities throughout the nation feeling the financial hardship of a shrinking trade.
Movies and tv reveals created primarily for U.S. audiences are being produced overseas — not due to higher expertise or expertise, however as a result of different nations acknowledge the worth of those productions and are providing sturdy monetary incentives that the U.S. merely doesn’t match. While U.S. states have provided tax credit for manufacturing, lately state incentives haven’t been sufficient to stop productions from shifting abroad.
Without a complete federal coverage response, the U.S. dangers turning its again on a signature American trade. Federal policymakers should act to degree the taking part in area and make the U.S. movie and tv trade extra aggressive on the worldwide stage. A globally aggressive, labor-based incentive for U.S. manufacturing that dietary supplements state incentives is crucial to return and keep movie and tv jobs in America.
IATSE is extremely grateful to have champions like Senator Schiff and Representative Friedman working to resolve this difficulty. Their strategic efforts have constructed momentum in direction of the introduction of a federal movie and tv manufacturing tax incentive and IATSE will proceed its tireless advocacy with Congress and the White House to realize that aim.