I have nothing against Canadians or Canada, most of them are really nice and Vancouver is beautiful but how come when ever I watch a T.V. show on a U.S. network like Fox, NBC, CW, CBS etc. 80% of then say “filmed in Vancouver or Toronto”?. I always thought our shows were made in America. Isn’t that what Hollywood is all about?. It bothers me that we buy these t.v. programs from Canada when we should be making them here in America and employing Americans. What about all the Hollywood and New York Producers, what do they think about our television market buying programs from our Northern neighbours?
It’s cheaper.
I hate to break it to you, but it IS the Hollywood and New York producers who are taking their shows to be filmed in Canada. Canada offers heavy tax breaks, and they have great crews available. California really needs to do something to stop runaway productions, but I can’t blame the producers for wanting to get more for their buck.
Yes, these productions aren’t “bought from Canada.” US based companies are using Canadian locations because it’s cheaper.
This. If you want US productions to be shot in the US, be more competitive. You guys live for Capitalism, don’t you?
Subsidies and tax breaks don’t really square with traditional capitalism.
??
IANAEconomist, so I may be off base here, but I thought America prided itself on having relatively low taxation levels compared to other first world countries? Isn’t lower taxation something that capitalists want? And US politicians (especially Republicans and libertarians) always try to attract support/voters by promising to lower taxes? And all politicians try to take actions to support local industries and increase jobs and the economy?
It just makes good sense for Canada to give tax breaks or subsidies to attract an industry that adds a lot of money and jobs into our local economy.
Thank you! As a background extra in a few US productions filmed in Canada, this Canadian agrees that we have great talent, both technically and artistically, here. 
I’ve filmed in Canada myself before, so I speak from experience!
I suspect union wages (and work rules) have something to do with it as well.
This is also why Breaking Bad is shot in Albuquerque. The show was originally intended to be set in Riverside, California, but New Mexico offered tax breaks. Of course, in this case, the location has become an integral part of the look and feel of the show.
New York is getting in on the tax break game too. The governor himself supposedly sat in on part of the negotiations to all filming on The Amazing Spider-Man 2 to NYS.
https://www.governor.ny.gov/press/03132013cuomo-announces-spiderman-movie-ny
Canada has a unionization rate of something like three times that of the US, and Vancouver film-workers (and I assume those in other places in Canada) are unionized.
Large subsidies and the weak Loony compared to the Dollar are why its cheaper to film in Canada.
It’s not just New York. Many states use tax incentives to lure film and television productions (about $1.5 billion in total tax breaks, across all states). The idea is that there will be a net gain from the economic activity spurred by the production. The incentives don’t always pay off. Michigan, for one, offered generous incentives to turn a former GM plant in Pontiac into a studio but it’s not working out. Also, Rhode Island offered bonds so that Curt Schilling could locate a video game studio in the state. It didn’t work out and now the state is trying to decide what to do.
Right, I was just responding specifically to the OP’s complaint that film/TV producers don’t film in New York. They do and the tax breaks are one of the big reasons why.
You do know the networks and movie studios are owned by multinational companies who have little if any loyalty to any country? The days when Bill Paley owned CBS or Howard Hughes owned RKO are long, long gone. If Hollywood will add Chinese only content to movies like “Iron Man 3” to please the Chinese government, why do you think they care where their movies are made?
The “Hollywood” studios care about money and nothing else. They don’t care about employing American actors or using American locations. They are multinational corporations owned by people from around the world with no loyalty to anything except their bank accounts. The only reason that they have the characters speaking in American accents (even though many of the actors are from elsewhere) and the TV shows and movies supposedly set in the U.S. (even though they are often shot elsewhere) is that their American audience mostly doesn’t like TV shows and movies set outside the U.S. and mostly doesn’t like foreign accents. The studios long for the time when CGI becomes so good that it will be possible to create a film entirely within a computer that looks exactly like a live-action one, so it will no longer be necessary to use actors or locations at all.
In one of the Highlander films the hero McLeod flew to Newark and there was a big sign on the wall in the arrivals hall saying “Bienvenus à Montréal!”.
For the past few years, New Mexico has been really pushing tax credits for in-state productions. I imagine that’s why in “Thor”, Thor’s hammer fell in the New Mexico desert – so the production could take advantage of the tax breaks there. But other productions are more subtly filmed in New Mexico, too. Huge chunks of “Observe and Report” were filmed inside a dead mall in Albuquerque just to get the tax breaks – “inside of a mall” could be anywhere.
When I was living in Santa Fe, I was once asked to allow an actress to say that she lived at my address so the production she was in could get a tax break for employing New Mexicans. I didn’t allow it, but I suspect she just found someone who did.
Some shows are indeed “bought from Canada”. For instance, many home renovation shows are shot for Canadian specialty cable channels (which have Canadian content rules) and are then shown on the corresponding U.S. specialty cable channels.