TwitterRegional Funding
By providing a number of incentives in its Convergent Stream programs, the Canada Media Fund (CMF) strives to support productions from outside Canada’s main production centres. In response to stakeholder proposals and in order to address the geographical dynamics that influence economic activity and decision-making, the definition of regional production for English-language projects reflects projects outside of Toronto, while regional production for French-language projects reflects projects outside of Montreal.
In 2013-2014, 41.6% of English-language production funding which totaled $82.0M, went to the regions, a marked improvement from the first two years of CMF, at 37.2% and 35.5%, respectively. Notably, 84.7% of the $82.0M in regional funding came through the Performance Envelope program.
French regional production funding (outside Montreal) has posted consistent year-over-year declines, from 18.4% in 2010-2011 to 14.5% in 2013-2014. Francophone production outside Quebec received 10.4% of French-language funding, slightly higher than last year, while Quebec production outside of Montreal received 4.1% of funding, a decline of 1.8 share points from 2012-2013.
2013-2014 regional spending accounted for more than one-half of English development commitments, or $4.7M in total. This majority share is due in part to the continuation of the English regional pre-development program at $0.9M. More detail on this program’s results can be found in the development section of the report. French regional commitments were at 23.5% of total French development in 2013-2014.
CMF Production Funding by Region
| BC | YK | NWT | AB | SK | MB | TO | ON | NU | MTL | QC | NB | NL | NS | PEI | Total | ||
| English | ($M) | 35.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 9.1 | 0.3 | 2.8 | 115.1 | 3.4 | 0.0 | 7.7 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 7.1 | 15.7 | 0.0 | 197.2 |
| % | 18.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 4.6 | 0.2 | 1.4 | 58.4 | 1.7 | 0.0 | 3.9 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 3.6 | 8.0 | 0.0 | 100.0 | |
| French | ($M) | 0.4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 2.6 | 3.0 | 0.0 | 84.7 | 4.0 | 3.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 99.0 |
| % | 0.4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 2.7 | 3.0 | 0.0 | 85.5 | 4.1 | 3.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 100.0 | |
| Total | ($M) | 35.9 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 9.1 | 0.3 | 3.8 | 117.7 | 6.4 | 0.0 | 92.4 | 4.5 | 3.3 | 7.1 | 15.7 | 0.0 | 296.2 |
| % | 12.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 3.1 | 0.1 | 1.3 | 39.7 | 2.2 | 0.0 | 31.2 | 1.5 | 1.1 | 2.4 | 5.3 | 0.0 | 100.0 |
Support to Regional Production by Program
| (% of total regional funding) | |
| English | |
| Performance Envelope | 84.7 |
| English Production Incentive | 7.8 |
| Anglophone Minority Incentive | 3.7 |
| English POV | 2.0 |
| Convergent Digital Media Incentive | 1.4 |
| Aboriginal Program | 0.4 |
| Total | 100.0 |
| French | |
| Francophone Minority | 68.7 |
| Performance Envelope | 20.0 |
| Regional French Incentive | 8.0 |
| Convergent Digital Media Incentive | 3.3 |
| Total | 100.0 |
English Production Incentive Program
The English Production Incentive (EPI) provides additional funding support to producers in areas of Canada where English-language production volumes have declined more than 20% below their five-year historical average or received 1% or less of English funding in the past. The program provides 10% of television project budgets to a maximum of $1.0M. This program is part of the CMF’s Convergent Stream; thus, projects funded through this stream must include content to be produced for distribution on at least two platforms, one of which must be television and the other, digital media. Funding from this program is allocated on a first-come, first-served basis within each eligible province and territory.
EPI funding of $6.9M contributed to 37 projects, triggering $94.7M in production budgets and 172.9 hours of television. Dramas received the largest portion of 2013-2014 program funding at 59.1%.
The eligible provinces, Nova Scotia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, shared 98.3% of the incentive in 2013-2014, with Nova Scotia receiving more than half of the funds committed.
The Northern Production Incentive provided $0.2M to 3 projects in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, two of which also received funds from the English Production Incentive.
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