Big jumps in pay-TV and homevideo drove Canadian film distributors and video wholesales to a record $2.28bn(C$3bn) in revenues in 2001-2002 according to data released Monday by StatisticsCanada.

Revenues from pre-recordedvideocassettes and DVDs reached$1.14bn in2001/02, their highestlevel ever, driven by a 23% increase in average household expenditures onsoftware. The overall increase over the previous year was driven, as usual, bysales of US-produced material in the film and TV domains. US films andtelevision programmes accounted for 91% of the Canadian market, a slight uptickfrom 90% in the previous frame.

The data, culled from asurvey of the217film, video and audio-visual distributors andwholesalers in Canada, showed that Canadians are watching more pay-TV andspecialty channels, where audience share grew from 16% in 1998 to 25% in 2002.

US dominance remainsparticularly acute in theatrical distribution and wholesale video. Even asCanadian products improve sales their market share did not alter. Foreignmovies accounted for 98% of distributors' revenue at the box office, a total of$306m. Likewise, the foreign share was 98% for pre-recorded videocassettes andDVDs, with revenues over $1bn in2001/02. Foreign content on Canadian PayTV and conventional TV stood at approximately 80% and 86% respectively.

Meanwhile, the downturn inCanadian production was showing an impact: Canadian product lost market sharein the television market, down 16%. International sales of home-grown faredropped for the first time in a decade.