OTTAWA – Before the “economic downturn,” before the impressive decline in advertising revenues and even before the 2008 upfront ad sales began in earnest, the volume of Canadian television production was sliding, according to figures released today at the Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA) annual conference.
09 Profile, the CFTPA’s annual economic report on the Canadian TV and film industry, says between April 1, 2007 and March 31, 2008, production volume totaled $2.3 billion, a 7% decline compared with 2006-07. It adds that although the drop can be linked to lower production volumes in both TV and film, more than one-half of the decrease in Canadian television production was due to lower levels of series production, especially in English-language drama and children’s and youth programming. The volume of French-language TV production was essentially unchanged.
Although Canada has long been a global leader in producing animation programming for all age groups, the volume of Canadian animation production, across various genres, fell by 31% to $196 million in 2007-08. This decline follows a strong spike of 48% in 2005-06. The report also notes a substantial drop in documentary production for TV, in both the English- and French-language markets.
The 2007-08 volume, which includes $1.1 billion in broadcaster in-house production – an increase of 1% over the previous year – is down from an all-time high of $2.5 billion in 2006-07.
In terms of production investment, Profile says all genres in both language markets saw higher average budgets. English-language drama hit an all-time high, with average budgets per hour topping $1.5 million. The average per-hour licence fee for English drama was $277,000, while the French equivalent was $177,000. The cost of an hour of French-language fiction was less than one-third as much, on average, at $429,000, which is still a 10-year high.
Canada’s TV sector also accounted for 51,000 jobs during the period, with 20,100 being direct and 31,100 indirect. The theatrical sector, by comparison, accounted for 6,900 jobs. It’s important to emphasize that the reporting period precedes the market instability that began last fall, when major broadcast ownership groups began announcing layoffs and other cutbacks.
