State of the Canadian On-Screen Media Production Industry

Ottawa, March 5, 2015—According to the latest figures released today in Profile 2014: An Economic Report on the Screen-Based Media Production Industry in Canada, the Canadian film and television production industry showed an overall increase in production volume of 2.1% from 2012/13 to 2013/14 to $5.86 billion.

Profile 2014 marks the 18th edition of the annual economic report published by the Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA) in collaboration with the Association québécoise de la production médiatique (AQPM) and the Department of Canadian Heritage. It was unveiled today at the CMPA’s annual conference Prime Time in Ottawa.

The report provides a 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. These sectors helped sustain 125,400 fulltime jobs in 2013/14.

Foreign location and service production made the largest gains, up $86 million or 4.9% last year, primarily due to a slightly weaker Canadian dollar and competitive tax credits and rebates. These gains also reflect a bounce-back in feature film production. In 2013/14 it was up by $215 million while TV production was down by $129 million.

The Canadian TV subsector was the second largest contributor to overall industry growth in 2013/14. Production volume increased by $60 million or 2.7% to $2.29 billion—even though the number of television projects actually fell by 7.7%, namely because of the drop in miniseries and single television episodes and pilots.

Canadian theatrical feature film production also made gains in 2013/14 up $15.1 million or 4.2%. Most of this increase is based on high-budget productions for individual, particularly in the English-language market. For example the average budget for English-language films jumped from $4.2 million to $7 million in 2013/14.

Broadcaster in-house production, by contrast, decreased overall by $43 million or 3.1% to $1.36 billion. This is largely due to a reduction in sports spending with no Olympic Games in 2013 and an NHL lockout during the 2013 broadcast year.

The full copy of Profile 2014 is available online.

About the CMPA
The CMPA is a national non-profit organization that represents the interests of over 350 leading screen-based media companies engaged in the production and distribution of English-language television programs, feature films and digital media content in all regions of Canada.  Visit www.cmpa.ca for more information and to join.
 
For more information please contact:
Anne Trueman
Director of Communications & Media
1.800.656.7440 Ext. 327                                                           
anne.trueman(at)cmpa.ca