OTTAWA – According to the latest figures released today by the Canadian Media Producers Association, overall production volume in Canada soared to an all-time high of $8.38 billion in 2016/17.
This is a 24% rise in volume over the previous year, helped generate 171,000 full-time jobs and added $12 billion to the country’s GDP, says the association’s annual report Profile 2017: An Economic Report on the Screen-Based Media Production Industry in Canada.
“With record growth across much of Canada’s production sector, there is much to celebrate this year, including the creation of jobs and a significant contribution to the country’s economy,” said Reynolds Mastin, president and CEO of the CMPA, in the press release.
“But, among these big numbers are some emerging trends that require attention. As our industry continues to adapt to evolving technologies and changing consumer behaviours, we must ensure that growth benefits our entire sector, including productions that showcase Canadian stories for audiences at home and around the world.”
This year’s report also shows the volume of Canadian film and television production (Cancon) rose 16% to $3.3 billion; “however, this was overshadowed somewhat by the fact that children’s and youth production declined in production volume, falling by almost 17% to $521 million, mainly due to the 22% drop in children’s animation production,” reads the report. In addition, domestic private broadcasters’ financing of all Canadian television production decreased by 13% to $412 million.
Foreign location and service production continued to show strong growth this year, up $1.1 billion, or 42%, from last year’s numbers as new TV shows worldwide are being created at a historic clip. A slightly weaker Canadian dollar is also one of the contributing factors, too, that saw this category reach $3.76 billion in production volume over the 2016/17 period.
There was also an increase in the in volume of broadcaster in-house production, which rose 5% to $1.32 billion, largely on the strength of a 33% rise in spending on sports programming.
This annual report is published by the CMPA in collaboration with the Department of Canadian Heritage, Telefilm Canada and the Association québécoise de la production médiatique (AQPM), and was released today at the CMPA’s annual conference Prime Time in Ottawa. It’s prepared by Nordicity Group, and provides statistical overview of the three main screen-based production sectors in Canada: Canadian production (includes television and theatrical), foreign location and service production, and broadcaster in-house production. It also features trends in the screen sector value chain.
The full copy of the 133 page report is available here.
