Written by new-contact on Apr 8, 2014. Posted in Incentive News

House of Cards likely to remain in Maryland as filming incentive gets funding boost

Kevin Spacey’s political drama House of Cards is likely to keep Maryland as its filming location now that the state has chosen to boost its filming tax credit. In the coming weeks lawmakers are expected to formalise an increase in Maryland’s film fund from USD7.5 million to USD18.5 million.

Over two seasons, House of Cards has doubled Baltimore and the surrounding area for Washington, DC, primarily because of Maryland’s filming incentive programme. The award-winning political comedy Veep is based in Baltimore for the same reason.

Maryland’s filming incentive programme has had a USD7.5 million annual fund for the past few years. This figure was more than tripled last year, but the increase was limited to a 12-month period.

House of Cards production company Media Rights Capital in fact postponed filming on the drama’s third season when uncertainties arose in February over funding for the tax credit.

Media Rights Capital appealed directly to the Governor of Maryland asking for continued support. The company stated that location filming options would be considered in other parts of the US if Maryland’s incentive wasn’t given a funding boost to match the support received by the show for the previous seasons.

Now, lawmakers have agreed on the USD18.5 million figure to help keep the valuable Netflix series in the state, although a couple more formal steps are needed to make it law.

As is the case across the US, opinions differ as to whether filming incentives are the best way to channel state funds. Maryland lawmakers appear to have decided that the necessary measures must be taken to keep House of Cards local.