Is Hollywood Losing Its Glitz and Glamour?

It seems as if burdensome regulations and union rules may be having a deleterious effect on the moviemaking bottom line. A new study concludes that TV pilot production in the LA area fell more than 23% from last year's level at a cost of more than 1,000 jobs which drained $70 million from the local economy.

A coupling of tax incentives and less regulation has lured production to twenty-five other states as well as Canada. The leaders are New York City and Canada as they enticed 11 projects away from LA each. Washington D.C. managed three.

In 2005, Los Angeles hosted 105 pilot projects, which represented 85 percent of those filmed. In 2006, the number of pilots fell to 81 and the city's share slumped to 68 percent.

The overall number of industry pilots slipped just 3 percent to 120 (from 124 a year earlier) during the February-to-May pilot season, according to the study, which was based on an industrywide survey of production companies.