Production volume in Canada hit more than $12B in 2022-23

The 2023 CMPA Profile shows a 4.4% increase from the prior year, but the association warns these numbers don't reflect recent production levels.

Canada’s film and TV industry saw further growth in 2022-23, with total production volume increasing by 4.4% to $12.19 billion, according to the Canadian Media Producers Association’s (CMPA) annual Profile report.

The report covers production volumes from April 1, 2022, to March 31, 2023, and does not account for the dual U.S. writers and actors strikes, “nor the significant reduction in commissioning,” according to a news release.

“The numbers released in Profile 2023 today are more of a happy memory, than a reflection of the current state of the sector,” said CMPA president and CEO Reynolds Mastin in a statement. “We remain hopeful that the industry will again ramp up to these levels and beyond.”

The CMPA said reports such as the one released by Ontario Creates in April point to impact of these challenges. As such, it is exploring the possibility of shifting the release date of its Profile to “align more closely with real-time production activity.”

Looking at 2023-24, the CMPA projects that production volume levels will fall below 2020-2021 pandemic levels, attributed largely to the U.S. strikes and a slowdown in commissioning.

Helping to drive the growth in 2022-23 were domestic productions, which increased by 6.5% to $4.14 billion from $3.9 billion in 2021-22. Foreign location and service (FLS) production volume hit $6.86 billion, up 2.3% from the $6.7 billion figure in the previous fiscal year.

The report noted that factors such as Canadian broadcasters catching up on their Canadian programming expenditure (CPE) under-spend during the pandemic, investments in Canadian content and higher in-house programming spend at the CBC for its coverage of the 2022 Winter Olympics contributed to the increased production volume. Increased production costs, as well as general wage and price inflation, also played in a role in the increase.

Of the $4.14 billion domestic figure, $3.68 billion came from television production and $458 million by theatrical feature film.

Broadcaster in-house production contributed $1.2 billion, a 10.3% increase from $1.09 billion in 2021-22.

The number of FLS productions increased to 705 from 645 in the prior year, with U.S. projects accounting for 523 of total productions. The total volume of FLS TV series production increased by 41.3% to $4.67 billion, while feature film production volume increased by 4.5% to $1.74 billion.

Film and TV production generated a total gross domestic product (GDP) of $14.05 billion, a 2.5% increase from $13.71 billion in the previous year. However, the total number of jobs created decreased by 0.4%, coming to 239,380 compared to 240,760 in 2021-2022. FLS production generated 137,770 of the total jobs.

Regionally, Ontario accounted for 36% of the total production volume in Canada, followed by British Columbia (31%), Quebec (26%), Prairies and territories (5%) and Atlantic Canada (3%).

Ontario also led the domestic production volume with 41%, followed by Quebec (31%), B.C. (14%), Prairies and territories (10%) and Atlantic Canada (4%).

B.C. accounted for the biggest chunk of FLS production volume with 45%, followed by Ontario (29%), Quebec (22%) and Prairies and territories and Atlantic Canada with 2% each.

Foreign investment in Canadian content, meanwhile, totalled an estimated $1 billion, and has grown by 73% over the last decade. The total value of foreign investment in production was $7.86 billion, up by 3.5%. The report noted that, while a big portion of that is FLS production, it also includes foreign presales and distribution advances for all projects certified by CAVCO, as well as estimates of foreign presales and distribution advances for non-CAVCO-certified productions.

On the content and genre front, Canadian television production was dominated by fiction (51%), followed by lifestyle and human interest (16%), children’s and youth and documentary with 14% each, and variety and performing arts with 5%. Fiction accounted for 71% of theatrical feature film production.

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