Posted on 05/17/2016 11:54:07 AM PDT by upchuck
There was some big news in the entertainment industry recently as the television show “Nashville” was cancelled after four seasons.
As a casual fan of the show and a Nashville resident, I enjoyed watching the show. It allowed me to brag to my friends about where I live, plus the music was always on point. Obviously, the market didn’t agree, as the ratings were not high enough for ABC to renew the show for another year.
However, the real issue with this show being cancelled has nothing to do with the quality of the show itself. The problem is that this is another example of corporate handouts gone wrong.
To date, the show “Nashville” has received over $45 million in “incentives,” with almost all of it coming directly out of the pocket of state and local taxpayers to fund a show that clearly could not succeed on its own merit. This is essentially the entertainment version of Solyndra.
This is essentially the entertainment version of Solyndra.
The show serves as a great example of everything that is wrong with corporate handouts. First of all, study after study shows that film incentives have a terrible return on investment. The government always loves to make up projections and equate completely unrelated outcomes when it defends the “benefits” of giving away taxpayer dollars to corporations.
But even the government can’t lie its way into pretending film incentives have any real value. The average return on investment for film incentives is somewhere around 30 cents on the dollar.
Second, the show “Nashville” followed the example of many corporations across the United States in holding the state that gave it money hostage. Once the state and city of Nashville gave the show millions in taxpayer dollars, the show’s producers threatened to leave Nashville and film in Austin, Texas, if we didn’t pony up more taxpayer money. This is just legalized blackmail. It’s like feeding the birds (or in this case vultures); once you give them food they are going to keep coming back for more.
The “Nashville” example also shows why corporate handouts are morally wrong. This was another example of the government picking winners and losers with taxpayer money on the line. The government is gambling with our hard-earned money on TV shows; this is unfair and appalling.
Plus, from the looks of it, Tennessee government seems to be gambling with our money at the casino from “Vegas Vacation.”
Even with the additional $45 million, the show “Nashville” still couldn’t succeed. Businesses, including TV shows, should succeed or fail based on their own merits, not because of who they know or how much money they can squeeze out of taxpayers.
As much as I’ll miss Rayna, Deacon, and the crew, I am glad for the sake of my pocketbook and yours that ”Nashville” has been canceled. I am hopeful that the cancellation of the show will expose this corrupt and unfair corporate handout system to the light of day.
Crony capitalism exudes FROM the entertainment industry. .................
Was overall a great show. The scenario this season of the attacks on the gay country star were so poor though. So stereotypical of Hollywood writer ignorance. The situation was actually fair game, but they brought on this hate spewing ‘conservative’ talking head as an antagonist and it was so phony.
Next up should be the excrement called “Empire”.
“Second, the show “Nashville” followed the example of many corporations across the United States in holding the state that gave it money hostage. Once the state and city of Nashville gave the show millions in taxpayer dollars, the show’s producers threatened to leave Nashville and film in Austin, Texas, if we didn’t pony up more taxpayer money. This is just legalized blackmail”
Blackmail??!?! Spare me the hysterics. How about this - JUST SAY NO!!!
Even on FR, will the whining never end??
The subsidy money spent on the TV show Nashville likely had the highest rate of return for any such money ever spent in Television history.
The tourism boom in this city is literally out of control, and the TV show coincided precisely with the launch of that boom. Unlike the idiotic convention center that sits lonely and unused, the TV show was an example of a government program that went right.
I never heard of the show until it was cancelled. I never, ever watch any of the alphabet networks.
This argument is ridiculous.
Tax money Nashville got before the show ran: $0
Assuming $45M was their entire tax debt, taxes they got while the show ran: $0
Tax money they will get now that the show is cancelled: $0
So, how did the city or state “lose money?” They may have lost the opportunity to make tax money, but probably would not have since the show would not have been done without the tax break.
And, the show did purchase local resources (food, hotels, vehicles rentals, etc.) and pay some local actors who most certainly paid taxes.
But, to say that it “cost” the city or state money is poppycock.
Old saying: You can’t lose what you never had.
Well just damn. I enjoyed the show except for the idiotic seemingly mandatory gay plotline. Everything is steeped in political agendas these days. I stupidly thought it was “just” a TV show. Now I find out it’s wallowing in taxpayer subsidies?? Ridiculous.
bttt
The show held my interest for about 1 1/2 seasons then meh. Probably for no other reason than I enjoyed Conne Britton in Friday Night Lights, and that the Actors of Nashville actually sang their own songs. Hopefully the cancellation doesnt push Hayden Panettiere over the edge, she was just committed for post partum / bi-polar something or another.
They tried to make a black “Dallas”..................
We stopped watching Nashville when it introduced the gay cowboy..............ABC has gone full on gayvision. Every show apparently must have a gay character, and not in a comedy relief situation. Most of ABC is now off our schedule................
Problem is you assumed $45M was their entire tax debt. Doubtless it was many times more than that. Being as production of a show doesn’t generate much in the way of taxes, it’s SELLING the show that generates the taxes and that all happens in LA and NYC. That $45M was free money they gave them to defray costs, the only taxes locations generally get out of filming is sales taxes from them buying supplies, and salary taxes. Nashville probably came out of that deal behind at least $35M.
What the article misses is that the show was basically an advertisement for tourism to the city of Nashville.
To compare the subsidy returns with those paid for merely siting a production in a given location is apples and oranges. Not only was the production sited here, but it kicked off a tourism boom that likely will run for years to come.
The biggest risk is not that the subsidy was ineffective, but that it was SO effective that it has kicked off an investment bubble in hotel construction!
totally wrong.
Bingo!!!! well said..
Right before the November election, get ready for:
CSI:GOP - An investigating unit created to expose the crimes of the EEEVILL Republicans , or they just make $h!t up and arrest them.
Blindspot - The FBI struggles to find evidence of crimes committed by "An Energetic and Dynamic Female Presidential Candidate" but fails to do so.
Once Upon a Time - There used to be TV shows that did NOT have a gay character in it.
Blacklist - There used to be TV shows that did NOT have, as the "person in charge", an African-american.
Law & Order - A fictional country where the government follows all of the laws of it's founding document.
Way to bring facts to an argument. Meanwhile there’s a long history of these deals being bad for the location and them losing money over the course of it:
http://www.cjr.org/united_states_project/the_lone_ranger_and_the_film_tax_incentives_arms_race.php
http://taxfoundation.org/article/movie-production-incentives-film-tax-credits-blockbuster-support-lackluster-policy
“Based on fanciful estimates of economic activity and tax revenue… taking unnecessary risks with taxpayer dollars…attract[ing] mostly temporary jobs that are often transplanted from other states”
Yeah except the comparison is incompetent.
This entire show was an advertisement for tourism to the city of Nashville, which is currently booming to such an unbelievable extent that we don’t have hotel rooms for everyone coming here. I work across the street from one of the locations used in the film and there is a line literally around the block to get in every night. We hiked the beer tax and the hotel tax and our city budget is dealing with unexpectedly huge inflows. The 15 million a year that went to this thing was the best investment the city has ever made when it comes to ROI.
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