LOS ANGELES, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- On-location film, television and commercial production activities in Los Angeles have seen a 19 percent fall over the previous year as recession, runaway production and lingering effect of contract dispute between management and actors took their toll on local productions, the Los Angles Times reported Friday.

    Although 2009 has been a bumper year at the box office, the city still saw the steepest year-over-year decline since 1993 when the statistics became available, FilmL.A. Inc. said in a report. The production has been a major employer and key component of the city, home to Hollywood and related entertainment industry.

    The sector was buffeted on several fronts. These included the recession, which led to a decline in film, TV and commercial shoots; the ongoing exodus of production from the region; and the long-term effects of a contract dispute with actors, which caused financing for independent features to dwindle, FilmL.A. said.

    Hardest hit was feature film production, which had been steadily falling over much of the last decade as L.A. lost jobs to Canada and, increasingly, other states such as New Mexico, Louisiana and Michigan that offer tax credits and rebates to filmmakers.

    The uptick wasn't enough to keep features from falling 30 percent for the year, however. Feature films accounted for 4,976 permitted production days (defined as a crew's permission to film a single project at a single location over a 24-hour period), the lowest level since 1993 and less than half what it was a decade ago, according to the daily newspaper.

    California's newly adopted film tax credit program helped to blunt the downturn, with production activity increasing by double digits in the second half of the year. About 50 productions qualified to receive about 100 million U.S. dollars in tax credits since the state program began this summer. Among those, 10 were feature films shot locally that would not have otherwise been made in California, according to FilmL.A.

    2009 has also been a difficult year for television and commercial productions, FilmL.A. said.

    Television, the largest sector of the production industry, saw its production days falling 17 percent to 15,933. Production days for commercial production also dropped 12 percent to 5,292 as advertisers scaled back spending because of the recession. That was the lowest level since 2000, when actors who work in commercials went on strike, FilmL.A said.

    Founded in 1995, FilmL.A. is a nonprofit group that handles film permits for the city and parts of the county.