Canada's film and televisionproduction community reported $2.55bn (C$2.9bn) in revenues in 2004, accordingto data released by Statistics Canada. It's an 11% increase since the lastnational snapshot of the sector in 2001.

There were fewer companies tosurvey - 688 compared to 728 - but the profit margin for thesurvivors has improved dramatically: from 1.2% to 4.6%. The survey did notinclude foreign-financed service productions.

StatsCan said the revenue increasewas the result of growth in non-production activities such as broadcasting andfilm distribution while revenues from production fell 10.6% between 2001 and2004 to just under $1.16bn. In 2004, production accounted for only 52% of totalrevenue, down from 65% in 2001.

The decline points to fallingdomestic demand, given that the production sector saw an increase in exports,up to 47% from 40% in 2001.

Revenue from television productionwas off but still the principal source of revenue, with approximately 60%.

Revenue from advertisingproduction was up markedly, from 10% to 14% as a share -- the highestamount since the survey's incepton in 1972.

Theatrical feature film revenuegrew in 2004 but it lags far behind money derived from television and commercials work. Theatrical filmmaking'ss share of production sales was up from4.5% to 6.2%.

As usual, three provincesdominated the production scene. Ontario lead Quebec and British Columbia, withrevenues of $659m, $374m and $236m respectively.

Ontario and BC were subject tostrong fluctuations, with BC increasing by 30% and Ontario down by 20% in thesame time frame.

Quebec saw a modest decline of2.4%.

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