CMF to invest $366M in Canadian Television and Digital Media Production

Under a new executive team, CMF begins transition to become a content-centric, platform-agnostic global content fund

Toronto, April 1, 2022 - The Canada Media Fund (CMF) today announced it will invest just under $366M in Canada’s television and digital media industries in 2022-2023. It also published Program Guidelines for the new fiscal year. The breakdown of the 2022-2023 program budget can be accessed here.

“The challenges of the past few years gave us all pause to reconsider many things,” said Valerie Creighton, President and CEO, CMF. “These changes created new opportunities. New ways of thinking and of working. We needed to hear from as many of our stakeholders as possible on what positive change for our industry would look like and the CMF’s role in support of the industry. Not only a year ahead, but well into the future. This led us to our most ambitious consultation process to date. We heard from close to 1,000 stakeholders on the change that was needed for CMF to remain the reliable partner it has always been to our clients. We thank all those who contributed with valuable insights. Your vision and ideas gave us much to consider, as we look to charting a new course for CMF.”

“Considering the significant industrial disruption of the last two years, the upcoming legislative and regulatory changes through Bill C-11, our focus for this year will be on flexibility to the extent possible and predictability, until a new CMF program model is introduced and the larger legislative changes to Canada’s screen-based industry are implemented.”

“The 2022-2023 fiscal will be a year in which we will continue to support the industry to first stabilize, then transition to growth in 2023-2024. As such, changes to the 2022-2023 programs will be relatively few. Our focus on inclusion is strengthened to ensure all voices and stories flourish. Our new PERSONA-ID self-dentification system will help us accomplish this goal.”

“We would like to thank our public and private funders for their ongoing support. We’re especially grateful to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, the Honourable Pablo Rodriguez, for delivering on the Government’s commitments to support Canada’s screen-based sector.”

The CMF program budget is supported by revenue estimates for the coming year based on ongoing funding contributions from the Government of Canada, as well as contributions from Canada’s cable, satellite and IPTV distributors. Tangible benefits, recoupment and repayment revenues from funded productions also support the program budget. This year’s budget reflects a steady contribution from the Government of Canada, and the stabilization funding to help mitigate declining contributions from Broadcast Distribution Undertakings (BDUs) to the CMF.

Among other changes, the CMF will be implementing the following. A more detailed summary of changes can be accessed here.

The CMF will continue most of the Flexibility Measures it introduced in response to the pandemic to help stakeholders continue adapting to new ways of production.

After focusing on Indigenous Peoples to Canada and Racialized Communities in the first year of its Equity and Inclusion Strategy, the CMF will expand its definition of “Diverse Community” and include members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community and Persons with disabilities. Persons with disabilities will be eligible to benefit from specific support when submitting Program applications through the CMF’s Accessibility Support initiative.

Beginning this year, the CMF will formally roll-out Persona-ID, its new self-identification system that will measure and monitor the demographic representation and participation of all individuals with ownership and control on CMF-funded projects and key personnel on CMF-funded projects. While participation in the Persona-ID process is voluntary, it will be a necessary step for all directors/shareholders and key personnel on applications for a program with a CMF Diverse Community or gender initiative. CMF Applicants will no longer ask key personnel about how they identify. Instead, individual key personnel will be required to provide CMF Applicants with a Persona-ID number, which will be included in each CMF application.

All detailed information gathered through Persona-ID will remain confidential. However, in keeping with the principle of transparency, the CMF will publish anonymous and aggregated data to give industry stakeholders a clear picture on the various communities accessing CMF funding.

In addition to Projects with a Diverse Community or gender initiative, the CMF encourages all individuals working in key roles in Canada’s audiovisual industries to sign up for a Persona-ID number. This will allow the CMF to have reliable data as it evolves its programs and policies. To learn more about Persona-ID, please click here.

The CMF will host an information session on program guidelines changes on April 21 at 11:00am (EST) for the French-language market and April 21 at 2:00pm (EST) for the English-language market. Information sessions specific to Persona-ID will take place on April 13 at 11:00am (EST) for the French-language market and April 13 at 2:00pm (EST) for the English-language market. The details to participate in these sessions will be communicated later.

About the Canada Media Fund

The Canada Media Fund (CMF) fosters, develops, finances and promotes the production of Canadian content and applications for all audiovisual media platforms. The CMF guides Canadian content towards a competitive global environment by fostering industry innovation, rewarding success, enabling a diversity of voice and promoting access to content through public and private sector partnerships. The CMF receives financial contributions from the Government of Canada and Canada’s cable, satellite and IPTV distributors. Please visit cmf-fmc.ca.

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Media Contact:

André Ferreira
Senior Communications Manager
416-554-2768
[email protected]