In a press conference Wednesday, Republican Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., spoke on a newly introduced bill targeting the revitalization of America's film and television production industry. The Motion Picture, Television, and Entertainment Revitalization Act has received bipartisan congressional support from senators Adam Schiff, D-Calif., John Cornyn,R-Texas, and Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., as well as support from President Donald Trump.
The bill would create a 20% base tax credit, a federal production incentive, to help bring domestic entertainment jobs and production that have been lost to countries providing competitive production incentives. Additionally, Scott said, because of the rise of Novel CGI and generative AI technologies, shooting on-location has been "dramatically reduced."
For projects to qualify for the incentive, the bill requires 75% of the payroll and production to be done in America.
"For me, this is a job creation and saving jobs type of bill," Scott said.
According to Scott’s office, the domestic film and television industry has delivered more than $416 million in wages and $3.2 billion in economic impact for South Carolina.
"Today in South Carolina, more than 7,000 people are employed in the production industry," Scott said. “The multiplier effect brings those jobs to 17,000 jobs just in South Carolina that would be preserved by [keeping] these films made in America."
The bill would also provide option 5% bonus credits that could be stacked upon the base credit—the total credit capped at 30%—that can be received through: production in rural opportunity zones or federally declared disaster zones, multi-state productions, films completed by an independent producer, film companies increasing domestic production and numbers relative to past foreign investment.
"The opportunity zones legislation encourages even more investment in rural American, including rural South Carolina," Scott said when asked how the legislation would go beyond temporary job creation for South Carolinians, "bringing jobs to rural America is key for their development, but also when that happens, people want to come and check [the locations] out."
The bill has received endorsements nationwide from entities such as the Directors Guild of America (DGA), Producers Guild of America (PGA), Television Academy, and the Independent Film and Television Alliance (IFTA).
