There’s no question that, for the Canadian film and TV industry, 2024 was a year of continued disruption.

The year saw the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission set base contributions for eligible foreign-owned streaming services at 5% of Canadian revenues. But how that decision plays out remains to be seen, since it’s been challenged by various U.S.-owned streamers at the Federal Court of Appeal, with a hearing slated for June 9 in Toronto.

An unexpected shift in rights agreements saw long-running brands like HGTV, Food Network and Discovery moved from their respective homes at Corus Entertainment and Bell Media to Rogers Communications. The move led Corus to lean in on its Canadian lifestyle programming for new originals brands Food Network and Home Network, with Bell Media similarly expanding its CTV-branded channels, while also ushering in new deals for USA Network and Oxygen True Crime, licensed from NBCUniversal Global TV Distribution.

The year also brought a wave of changes for guild and union labour agreements, including new requirements around artificial intelligence (AI) for Canadian writers and actors, and B.C.-based directors.

Increased costs, regulatory uncertainty and Cancon commissioning all factored into the Indie List and its survey results. But overall, how are producers feeling about the state of the industry?

According to the Indie List results, it’s a mixed bag. When asked if opportunities for producers were better than ever, worse than ever or the same, answers were split down the middle for “worse” or “the same,” coming in at 44% each. In comparison, 46% said things were worse in 2024 and 41% said things were status quo.

One thing that’s very clear: fewer producers are feeling optimistic. One-eighth (12.5%) of participants said opportunities are better than ever, which is down from 14% in 2024 (and that was a drop from 20% in 2023).

Several production companies moved up the list this year. Notably, Lark Productions moved into the top five after nearly doubling its production spend from the prior year with $120 million. The Vancouver-based prodco had several productions in the works in 2024, including a double- season order of Citytv’s Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent and season two of the CBC crime procedural Allegiance.

Similarly, Calgary’s Nomadic Pictures nearly doubled its production spend at $110.7 million. The company was a producer on the Prime Video series House of David and the Ryan Phillippe-led feature One Mile, among other projects in 2024.

Toronto-headquartered Blink49 Studios hit the No. 2 spot behind WildBrain, with $146.6 million compared to $116.4 million the prior year. The studio expanded to unscripted production with CTV’s Queen of the Castle and service work with Prime Video’s massive Beast Games, in addition to new seasons of scripted series Wild Cards (CBC) and Sight Unseen (CTV).

Other companies that saw a notable increase in production spend from 2023 were Shaftesbury, Elevation Pictures, Neshama Entertainment and Hangar 18 Media.

There are some differences too. BPOC producers accounted for 21% of films funded by Telefilm in 2023-24 and 10% of CMF’s linear funding went to projects from Indigenous-owned companies.

This year Playback collected data on the ownership of participating companies, asking if prodcos were fully or partially owned by women or producers who identify as either Indigenous or as Black or as a person of colour (BPOC).

Overall, 29% of companies said they were fully or partially owned by women (18% fully and 11% partial), while 7% of companies were at least partially BPOC-owned (5% fully and 2% partial). Only one company identified as Indigenous-owned (accounting for less than 2% of participants). The remaining 62% of companies participating in the list did not identify as BPOC, women or Indigenous-owned.

While the statistics only give a small snapshot of the production companies operating in Canada, there are some similarities with other demographic stats available. The Canada Media Fund (CMF) reported that women accounted for 28% of shares in the linear content funded in 2023-24.

Also, in its annual report, Telefilm Canada said that 38% of films receiving production funding in the same fiscal year were produced by women.

As for the main survey results, budgeting has stayed top of mind for producers, with 71% of survey participants identifying financing and budgets as the biggest challenge facing their business. That’s slightly up from 69% in last year’s survey. One anonymous respondent argued that Canada is “still playing in the kiddie sandbox in terms of funding models” in a continually evolving market.

Commissioning is another concern for producers, with 39% worried about available inventory for Canadian programming on domestic channels (up from 35% in 2024) and 36% concerned about international market interest in Canadian programming (up slightly from 34%). More than a quarter (28%) cited regulatory uncertainty as a challenge, while 25% pointed to inflation and getting development projects in front of decision-makers.

There’s lots of Canadian buyers and doors to knock on, but [there’s] no one home and not enough greenlights across the board,” wrote Tyson Media president Tyson Hepburn. “In this climate, there needs to be more requirements for programs of national interest, not less.”

Other producers cited concerns around the wider impact of actions of the current U.S. administration — namely the use of tariffs and the scaling back of diversity, equity and inclusivity initiatives — as well as the increasing cost of guild and union agreements and the need for more investment in marketing.

On the flip side, 68% of participants said the biggest opportunity for prodcos lies in coproductions and co-ventures, up from 62% last year. Other opportunities highlighted include international partnerships at 55% (slightly up from 53%) and exploiting new IP at 48% (down slightly from 49%). More than 37% of producers cited exploiting existing IP, which is lower than the 49% who saw it as an opportunity last year.

In total, 57% of respondents said they planned to expand their business in 2025, down from the 62% who said they would expand their business last year.

“We feel that more and more American productions and streamers are looking to produce and film in Canada due to a cheaper exchange rate, great tax incentives and subsidies available, along with a beautiful offering of diverse landscapes and great crews,” wrote Neshama Entertainment EVP Dayna Zipursky. “This creates a lucrative opportunity for independent production companies who can work in mid to low-budget ranges as well as producers who have experience at this level and skillset.”

Regarding how or if respondents are using AI, the results suggest that, while AI seems to already be transforming the global film and TV sector, it’s not quite gaining traction here in Canada. Or, at least, no one is willing to say so quite yet.

Roughly 43% of participants said their companies have not used AI, while 14% said they preferred not to answer about their use of AI. Nearly one-quarter (23%) of respondents said they’ve used AI for administrative work and post-production, followed closely by development at 21%. One-eighth of participants said they’ve used the tech for business affairs work, with 9% saying it’s been used for generative video or audio work.

Other ways companies have used AI include proofing, creating graphics for pitch packages and AI model training.

Playback‘s Indie List survey was conducted from Feb. 3 to March 9. The results are based on responses from 56 independently-owned Canadian production companies.

This story originally appeared in Playback‘s Spring 2025 issue