Why when a TV show or a movie becomes a tax write-off, it can never be shown again?
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The fact that a network never intends to run a show again is what makes it a write off – not the other way around. There’s also nothing saying that a show can’t later be run after having been written off – any money that it makes just gets taxed normally.
There’s a pseudo-conspiracy theory going around about how HBO bought a bunch of cartoon network shows so that it could pull them and use them as a tax write off, which is what I assume prompted this. Its a total nonsense theory that ignores how taxes work and, in any event, would result in a huge financial loss for HBO for no gain.
The shows that HBO pulled were pulled because there are costs to hosting shows on a streaming service – even if no one is watching them. And the shows that were pulled all fall into that latter category – no one was watching them. Basically, HBO bought a gigantic library of cartoon network shows, included in which were a lot of shows that weren’t popular when run and which remain unpopular today.
HBO decided not to include those unpopular shows on HBO GO so there is nowhere you can see them, which is not uncommon among unpopular shows. The only difference is that the creators of some of those shows are very active on twitter and are up in arms about their shows not being streamed.
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