It’s been a record year for original Italian TV and film, with a staggering increase in investment in local content in the area. Our entertainment lawyer with Blake & Wang P.A, Brandon Blake, unpacks this promising boost to the industry.
Record Investment Levels
Across both TV and film, original Italian productions attracted roughly $1.38B in investment for the 2021 period. This represents a 37% increase on previous available figures, dated to 2018. This works out to a compound annual growth rate of 8.2% for the four years, although the progress was likely far less linear than that, given the intrusion of the COVID-19 pandemic and its global shutdowns into the equation.
Digging deeper into the figures, about 70% of this investment activity was for traditional broadcast networks and streamers. Series and films pulled in $646M, non-fiction TV $351M, and animation $45M. Somewhere between $341M-390M went to films specifically for theatrical release.
Italy’s Tax Credit
Italy currently offers a fairly attractive tax incentive for productions filming in the country, currently set at 14%. Of the series and films produced there, we see $117M coming specifically from streamers, while $219M came from free-to-air and TV broadcasters. The remaining $310M is split between both Italian and International producers capitalizing on that tax incentive.
The broadening focus on producing local content, as well as a global surge of interest in Italy as a production venue (aided by that generous tax rebate scheme) is being attributed as reasons for the strong growth, far over predicted averages. Of course, this growth cannot simply continue unabated, and we will undoubtedly see a slowdown with time. The theatrical sector in the country is also struggling to return to pre-pandemic levels.
However, it’s an encouraging sign, especially as the entertainment market becomes a more global entity, and Italy remains a location-of-choice to watch in coming years.
