MUMBAI: United States (US) leads the way when it comes to spending in animation, reveals ‘The Global Animation Industry‘, a study carried out by Screen Digest.

In the US, Walt Disney Co and Nickelodeon Animation Studios were the largest producers of animation content with 50 and 47 hours of content produced respectively in 2008.

Besides, other major companies such as 20th Century Fox Television produced 26 hours of content, Cartoon Network Studios produced content of 23 hours while Warner Bros TV Animation managed to produce 22 hours of animation content in the same period.

Although, Canada has emerged ahead of US and France in producing animation content with 382 hours produced in 2008 amounting to $265 million, US still leads with just 330 hours of animation content amounting to $376 million, making it the highest investment made by major animation players in the US, reveals the report.

In Europe, France was the highest producer with 259 hours in 2008, showing a sharp fall from a high of 395 hours in 2006.

"There is perhaps no genre of film or television more global than animation. A popular film or TV series in one country can quickly translate into a global phenomenon and success in these primary markets can feed through into DVD and licensing and merchandising revenues," says Screen Digest senior analyst Tim Westcott.