Canadian kids TV production at a ten-year low

Canadian kids TV production slumped to a ten-year low in the latest measurement period and smaller budgets have made Canadian shows less competitive internationally, according to a report from research company Nordicity.

Its report – The Case for Kids Programming: Children’s and Youth Screen-Based Production in Canada – 2009 Edition – says the value of kids production in Canada in 2007/2008 was C$257 million (US$233.9 million), its lowest for ten years. The sector peaked in 1990 when it was valued at C$389 million. Since then the average budget for a half-hour show has dropped by 14% the report says.

The level of public funding in kids content, C$87 million in 2007/2008, was also the lowest for a decade.

Canada still has one of the strongest kids sectors in the world and the funding advantages mean many Canadian shows have international copro partners. Nordicity estimates that in 2007/2008 the total value of exported kids programming from Canada was C$103 million.

However, the number of shows produced under the international treaties that Canada has inked with numerous countries around the world fell sharply in the latest survey period to C$92 million from C$139 million a year earlier and a high of C$314 million in 2000. The drop in the kids genre was twice as steeps as in other programming categories.

Nordicity produced the report for The Canadian Film and Television Production Association, The Shaw Rocket Fund and The Alliance for Children and Television.