Entertainment news is filled with gloomy stories about the ailing fortunes of veteran u.s. studio mgm, but you’d never know it by looking at the company’s television operations in Vancouver.

mgm is the number-one customer in the b.c. service industry, with production budgets greater than the combined work of newly merged Canadian companies Alliance Communications and Atlantis Communications. mgm’s b.c. projects represent $150 million in production budgets and 40% of all the shows mgm is involved in around the globe.

And while mgm’s current corporate troubles have indeed delayed the start of production of a fourth unnamed series in Vancouver for at least 12 months, the u.s. studio still has three series going strong at The Bridge Studios in Burnaby and is distributing yet another Vancouver-made series.

There are new seasons of Poltergeist and The Outer Limits currently shooting, and Stargate – for which mgm and Bridge Studios collaborated to build Studio 5/6 – has another two seasons to shoot once the current second season wraps in November. mgm is also distributing the Vidatron series called Dead Man’s Gun.

Mel Swope, executive vp of production for MGM Worldwide Television, justifies the studio’s substantial investment in Vancouver by invoking a familiar mantra: b.c. has great crews, support and scenery, but in the end, it’s economics that drives production to Canada.

Even still, he adds, it’s difficult – especially in television production – to rationalize the cost savings since the return on investment is on such a long recoupment arc. In that way, he’s hesitant to say that shooting in Vancouver gives the mgm shows an economic edge. Instead, he says, ‘we get a better looking show rather than just a bargain.’

Pete Mitchell, b.c.’s Film Commissioner, says the investment by mgm complements the near equal investment by Paramount (an estimated $125 million in 1998) in that mgm focuses on television that creates long-term employment and Paramount creates many high-profile features such as Double Jeopardy.

‘mgm is our most knowledgeable and sophisticated customer,’ says Mitchell, remarking on mgm’s involvement in the crtc’s debate about what defines a Canadian series and its efforts to get involved in local training initiatives. ‘They are right in the game helping the local industry evolve. Their legacy of studios at The Bridge demonstrates influence that will go beyond the time they stay there.’

‘mgm’s commitment to b.c. is quite extraordinary,’ echoes Susan Croome, gm at The Bridge Studios where mgm works in six of seven studios.

She adds that no other studio has partnered with b.c. to build a facility like Studio 5/6 where Stargate is shot. ‘No one else has made that kind of long-term commitment to b.c. They’ve got really good people on the ground here and we have a really good, open relationship with executives in l.a. And that’s important since they take up the majority of our lot.’

And given the size of mgm’s investment in b.c., it’s not surprising that anxiety levels have begun to rise with the troubling news about mgm from Hollywood. In trying to allay fears that mgm is less strong in b.c., Swope says: ‘We’re busier than ever and the folks in b.c. – the technical people, the government, the neighborhoods that let us come in and shoot – are a part of that.’