Montreal: Government and banking interests have joined Canada’s production, distribution and exhibition industries to finance what is being heralded as ‘a landmark study on the current state of the (film and television entertainment) industry, its needs and future trends.’

The $175,000 study will take about six months to complete and is aimed at improving the industry’s strategic positioning and its ability to attract increased domestic and foreign investment.

Billed as the first major study of the Canadian film and television entertainment industry in more than a decade, sponsors include The Royal Bank of Canada, Cinar Films, ytv, Cineplex Odeon, Famous Players, The Financial Post and Industry Canada.

The need for the study is underlined by the unprecedented growth and change in the industry, say its sponsors.

‘The industry has reached an important point in its development and to ensure future growth and correct orientation, we have to be able to talk from a position of knowledge,’ said Cinar chair Micheline Charest at the Toronto launch of the initiative late last month.

Maureen Farrow, president of Economap, Toronto, has been named project leader. Farrow is also executive vice-president, research director with Loewen, Ondaatje, McCutcheon, an institutional brokerage firm based in Toronto.

Exports of Canadian film and tv products grew 30% in the latter half of the past decade, while growth in consumer spending in the cultural sector rose from $10 billion in 1987 to $16 billion in 1991. An estimated $1.2 billion in foreign capital will flow into Canada in the year ahead. LRB