The Market Signal: "Make Hollywood Great Again" vs. Netflix's Engagement Flywheel

Why MHGA's focus on IP ownership may complicate Netflix's gaming and multi-platform ambitions

The Medium identifies essential signals on how technology is shaping the business of culture, and how the marketplace is evolving in response.

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The Market Signal

The proposal to “make Hollywood great again” (MHGA) emerged this week and Deadline released the full document.

It targets the streaming industry, focusing on “content produced for theatrical distribution; U.S. broadcast networks; U.S. cable channels; streaming services (including, e.g., Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Apple, Peacock, Paramount+ and Hulu); and digital platforms (e.g., YouTube, YouTube TV, X, Facebook)”.

The proposal offers domestic tax incentives and a tariff on productions that “could have been produced in the US” but opted to produce in foreign countries offering production tax incentives. It also proposes reviving the Financial Interest and Syndication Rule (FINSYN) for broadcast and updating it for streamers.

Why It Matters

Headlines have focused on the taxes, tariffs and FINSYN aspects of MHGA. The proposal is broader in scope, aiming to leverage incentives to force investment into the entire media and entertainment ecosystem, from producers to distributors.

Notably, it does not mention artificial intelligence (AI) or its disruptive impact on intellectual property. For our purposes, the most interesting is FINSYN’s implications for intellectual property. Netflix has been moving away from streaming alone and towards broader engagement models around owned IP.

This development seems to interfere with that roadmap.

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