Building the Future of Film, Television, and Commercial Production in New York

New York is the second most important production center in the U.S. visual media industry and has had, historically, distinctive competitive advantages in particular industry segments, including those related to feature film, television network and cable production, and commercial production. There is substantial anecdotal evidence that production is decreasing in New York, with implications for employment of industry professionals and for the position of the City as a media production center. To ensure and build New York's role in what are now global entertainment and information industries, we need to know why the location of production is changing and to devise a policy agenda that places New York at the center of these industries as a primary location for visual media production.

An industry coalition, The New York Film, Television, and Commercial Initiative, including New York studio owners, producers, and representatives from labor unions and guilds, has joined together to sponsor a study that will enable policy-makers to ensure New York's role as a major center for media production in the world.

Cornell University's Department of City and Regional Planning and the Fiscal Policy Institute are conducting the study. Our goal is to help the media industries develop policies to sustain and build New York's share of production in an increasingly international and competitive environment.

The research builds on what we know about national trends in the audio-visual industries, industry employment, and production location. We concentrate specifically on New York and the particular significance media industries have for the economy of the City and the State. Although studies have been done on "runaway production" and the changing location patterns of media producers, they have focused primarily on California. Our study engages a set of issues that have been neglected so far and that have particular relevance for New York. For example, we are examining: 1) changes in product mix (for example, the decline in scripted television programming) and how they affect production location decisions; 2) the reasons behind the decline in commercial production in New York in the past fifteen years; and 3) how labor compensation and productivity affect location decisions.

For more information, please contact Susan Christopherson at Cornell University.