Netflix Inc. and Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. location scouts spent the weekend re-running pilot budgets after President Donald Trump used his United Nations General Assembly speech to pitch a 15% federal production credit that could stack atop California’s rebate, according to three people involved in fall location decisions. The studios are not waiting for legislation—they are stress-testing whether a UNGA talking point beats Georgia’s cash rebate on paper before soundstages lock for November.
What Trump pitched in New York
Trump told world leaders on Friday that keeping “American stories on American soil” required a national incentive modeled on California’s Film and Television Tax Credit Program, with a baseline 15% credit on qualified U.S. wages and in-state spend. Special ambassador Jon Voight, who has lobbied for production sweeteners since a Mar-a-Lago meeting in May, stood in the hall and told reporters the credit should pair with an extension of Section 181, the federal deduction that lets producers expense domestic shoot costs in the year they are incurred.
Congress has not enacted the 15% credit. Lawmakers instead introduced the bipartisan CREATE Act in August 2025 to extend Section 181 through 2030 and raise deduction caps from $15 million to $30 million per project. That bill remains in committee while Section 181 expired for productions commencing after Dec. 31, 2025. Netflix and Warner scouts said their models now treat the UNGA proposal as a 50% probability line item—enough to keep Burbank stages in play, not enough to cancel a Atlanta scout.
How California fits
California more than doubled its state credit pool in 2024, but FilmLA data show feature and scripted series on-location days still trailed pre-strike levels in parts of Los Angeles County. Scouts for a Warner Bros. half-hour comedy said they compared a Burbank backlot package against a Albuquerque stack that includes New Mexico’s 35% rebate. A Netflix limited series weighing San Francisco exteriors ran the same spreadsheet with a hypothetical federal layer that would apply only to U.S. payroll, not visual-effects work shipped overseas.
“State credits are cash; Section 181 is timing,” one scout said. “A federal credit changes the discount rate if investors can count on it for five years.” Union crews are watching: IATSE locals in Los Angeles emailed members Sunday that any federal program would need prevailing-wage guardrails similar to California’s credit rules.
What ships this fall
Neither Netflix nor Warner Bros. Discovery commented on specific pilots. People familiar with scheduling said at least two Warner streaming orders must lock locations by Oct. 15 to make holiday post-production windows. Netflix’s unscripted slate has more flexibility, but unscripted producers said insurance quotes for San Francisco street shoots rose after summer wildfire smoke days.
Industry lobbyists plan to press the CREATE Act during the lame-duck session while separately drafting language for Trump’s 15% credit. For scouts, the work is arithmetic: if federal math stays a speech, Georgia and New Mexico keep winning; if CREATE passes without a credit, Section 181’s return might only help mid-budget features, not the eight-episode series driving platform slates.
Monday’s takeaway on the lots: keep California scouts employed, keep out-of-state options warm, and treat UNGA as a location scout’s weather forecast—directional, not binding.
