Twenty-five indie entertainment industry companies have come together to form the American Coalition for Independent Content Production which is calling on government to provide support and relief during the pandemic, making it more feasible for business to properly resume. The coalition is lobbying for grants and long-term low interest loans, federal tax incentives, assistance in case projects get suspended or abandoned, and liability protection to offer a measure of legal certainty for productions going forward.
Among the members of the coalition are: A24, Amblin Partners, Annapurna Pictures, Avalon, Bron Studios, Endeavor Content, Endless Media, Endurance Media, Film Finances, FilmNation, Gaumont, Le Grisbi, Madrona Drive, Media Guarantors Insurance Solutions, Origin Entertainment, PictureStart, Platonic Systems, Skydance Media, UniFi Completion Guarantors, Village Roadshow Entertainment Group, Valence Media (parent to Dick Clark Productions and MRC) wiip, and XYZ Films.
The coalition reasons that comprehensive aid is needed to prevent further damage to the creative content and production communities, and to put the industry on a return path to generating film, TV and other media content.
Whether this effort will make headway remains to be seen. Congress is currently considering more federal aid in the face of severe unemployment and the latest spike in coronavirus cases throughout the country, most notably in Florida, California, Arizona, Georgia and Texas.
The $600 weekly federal benefits now received by tens of millions of unemployed workers are set to expire July 31. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the Trump administration’s chief negotiator on economic relief, today (7/17) told a House hearing that Congress should pass a new rescue package by the end of the month. Set for negotiations next week, it would be the fifth virus relief bill since the spring, when Congress dispensed and President Donald Trump approved nearly $3 trillion in emergency aid.
The new relief legislation is expected to extend the $660 billion emergency loan program for small businesses with new funding of around $300 billion. But the new loans under the Paycheck Protection Program should be awarded on a more focused basis, Mnuchin said, toward smaller businesses and those especially hard-hit by the pandemic and lockdowns of business and commerce. Restaurants, hotels and other travel and hospitality businesses figure prominently among them.
“I think it’s important that we target this to the businesses that are hardest-hit,” Mnuchin testified to the House Small Business Committee.
Mnuchin and Jovita Carranza, head of the Small Business Administration, parried criticism of the loan program at the hearing. Responding to accusations that the program failed to adequately target the neediest applicants, Mnuchin acknowledged that to correct a current lapse, a revenue test should be applied to businesses seeking aid going forward. He also approved setting aside funds for loans to minority-owned businesses.
Data on some $517 billion in taxpayer-funded loans awarded under the program designed to soften job losses from coronavirus give the impression of a rushed, first-come, first-served effort that also benefited wealthy, well-connected companies, some firms owned by celebrities and politicians including governors, and big restaurant chains backed by Wall Street investors.
“Many in our country are struggling. They are angry and they are hurting,” said Committee Chair Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y. She called “a gut punch,” for example, the fact that members of Congress and other officials weren’t subject to ethics rules governing other federal programs and were allowed to receive loans.
Loan awards under the program have slowed to a trickle in recent weeks. After 3 ½ months, the SBA has processed about 5 million loans worth some $500 billion. About $130 billion hasn’t been committed. Originally scheduled to end last month, the program was extended through Aug. 8.
The low-interest loans are forgivable if the business uses the money to keep employees on the payroll or rehire workers who have been laid off. Companies recently got an extension of the time for them to use the loans, from eight weeks to 24.
AP Business writers Martin Crutsinger & Marcy Gordon contributed to this coverage.
