Screen tax credits are worth billions, but have a dark side too

K.J. Yossman reports in Variety that Tax Breaks Resulted in $18 Billion Boost for U.K. Economy.

She writes:

“According to the British Film Institute report, titled “Screen Business,” every £1 of U.K. film tax relief generates £8.30 for the U.K. economy via direct spend on screen production (which has increased by 74% to £13.86 billion between 2017-19), local business and infrastructure growth, job opportunities, inward investment e.g. in studio space, exports of U.K. services and productions, travel, retail and tourism (Bath, for example, now offers a number of “Bridgerton” tours).”

The dark side?

“While the production boom is great news for the U.K. economy – the report found jobs have increased by 45% and almost £1 billion will be invested in production facilities since 2016 – it has had a knock-on effect on smaller production companies and indie film producers, who are struggling to source crew, space and even equipment. In turn, scarcity has unsurprisingly led to price inflation.”

My take: I would say the same thing has happened here in Victoria, BC.

The Internet turns 50!

Last Sunday, October 29, 2019, the Internet turned 50 years old.

We’ve grown from the 1970 topology:

to this in 2019:

internetmap072

Okay, here’s a real representation of the Internet.

What’s next? The Interplanetary Internet of course.

My take: It’s important to note that the World Wide Web is not the same thing as the Internet. (The Web wouldn’t be invented for another 20 years!) The Internet is the all-important backbone for the numerous networking protocols that traverse it, http(s) being only one.