Canadian film and TV production volume fell to pre-pandemic levels in the 2023/24 period as a commissioning slowdown and the U.S. labor strikes bit, a report from the country’s screen producers body shows.
Volume was down 18.5% to C$9.58B ($6.68B) in the 12 months between April 1, 2023 and March 31, 2024, according to the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA)’s ‘Profile 2024’ report. In 2019/2020, the figure was C$9.38B, with the following year seeing a fall as Covid-19 lockdowns hit production before a major spike over the next two years saw figures reach C$11.75B last year (2022/23).
The CMPA says the figures reflect a “significant downturn” in both the domestic and foreign production segments, with the lengthy actors and writers strikes and a slowdown in commissioning, most notably in English-language television, blamed primarily for the fall. This was despite the sector employing nearly 180,000 people and contributing C$11.04B to Canada‘s GDP.
“The numbers released in today’s report starkly confirm the significant economic slowdown that Canadian producers and creators have faced over the past 18 months,” said CMPA President and CEO Reynolds Mastin. “While this downturn affects the entire industry, small production companies and those working in the kids and animation sector have been hit particularly hard.”
Within the C$8.58B figure, just under half (C$4.73B) was from the foreign location and service (FLS) segment, with Canadian television next with C$3.25B, in-house broadcaster spend at C$1.16B and Canadian theatrical feature film coming in at C$440M. The split of employment broadly followed the same percentage breakdowns.
Despite the U.S. strikes, the CMPA noted that FLS production in 23/24 was still 80% higher than in 2014/15, and while Canadian production is also up, it has grown at a slower rate over that same period. English-language content made up 70% of the C$3.69B spent on Canadian productions, with French-language accounting of the rest.
The news comes as the Canadian Radio-television Communications Commission (CRTC) continues to work through a multi-phase review of the regulatory framework for the Canadian broadcasting system. In June, the Commission outlined terms of the Online Streaming Act, which dictates streamers must spend 5% of their local revenues to support Canadian content. The move that was welcomed by the CMPA, but the body does not expect positive impacts “for some time, given contributions are not required until August 2025.”
“We are still one to two years away from seeing any new investments in Canadian content through the Online Streaming Act, but we remain hopeful that the industry will ramp up again,” said Mastin. “Recovery is crucial for the tens of thousands of Canadians whose livelihoods depend on the success of this industry.”
The Profile report has historically been released in Spring, but the CMPA says this meant it was not always reflective of the industry, so moved the date to December. The 2025 edition, and all future editions, will be released in the fall.
The annual economic report, whose full title is ‘Profile 2024: An Economic Report on the Screen-based Media Production Industry in Canada’, is compiled by Nordicity, and developed in collaboration with the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Canada Media Fund (CMF), Telefilm Canada and the Association Québécoise de la Production Médiatique (AQPM).
