A new report from the Quebec English-language Production Council (QEPC), an industry association that promotes English-language film and television production in Quebec, shows that while the annual volume of film and TV production within Canada’s official language minority community (OLMC) in Quebec is recovering from the Covid-19 downturn, it continues to face challenges.
Co-authored by the QEPC and consulting firm Nordicity, the Canadian Audiovisual Regional Production Report 1996-97 to 2022-23 is a 27-year quantitative study that examines national and regional production trends across Canada, focusing on OLMC production in Quebec. It is an updated analysis of the previous edition published in January 2023.
“English OLMC production has been declining for 25 years from a peak of 26% of total English Canadian content (CanCon) in 1997-98, hitting a nadir of $104 million or 6% in 2020-21. Since then, along with other CanCon, OLMC production has increased in dollar value, reaching $184 million in 2022-23, but still accounting for only 6% of the $2.956 billion English CanCon total in that year,” says a press release summarizing the report’s findings.
So while its dollar value increased, OLMC production in Quebec hit an all-time low in 2022-23 on a percentage basis, continuing the lows of six per cent also hit in 2020-21 and 2021-22, the press release says.
Total CanCon production in all languages reached a record $4.14 billion in 2022-23, having recovered strongly after dipping to $2.681 billion during the pandemic in 2020-21, according to the report.
Between 2018-19 and 2022-23, English-language CanCon increased at a 5.06-per-cent compound annual growth rate from $2.426 billion to $2.956 billion, the report shows. Total French-language production hit a record $1.209 billion in 2021-22, but declined slightly to $1.168 billion in 2022-23.
French official language minority production outside Quebec was at a record $75 million in 2021-22, before dipping to $70 million in 2022-23, according to the report. On a percentage basis, French-language production outside Quebec was at its highest level in 2019-20 at eight per cent of total French-language CanCon production.
Foreign financing supports two per cent of French-language production in Quebec, and 16 per cent of OLMC production, according to the report. In comparison, Canadian broadcasters supported 44 per cent of French CanCon in Quebec and 23 per cent of English CanCon.
Foreign location and service (FLS) production reached a peak of $6.856 billion in 2022-23, with $1.54 billion or 22 per cent located in Quebec. FLS production continues to outpace CanCon production, according to the report.
The Canadian Audiovisual Regional Production Report 1996-97 to 2022-23 was made with financial support from the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA), the Department of Canadian Heritage, Telefilm Canada, the National Film Board of Canada, and the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) Montreal. The report’s statistics have been prepared in alignment with statistics found in the CMPA’s Profile 2023: An economic report on the screen-based media production industry in Canada.
Screenshot of the front cover of the QEPC’s Canadian Audiovisual Regional Production Report 1996-97 to 2022-23
