Question Period Note: Canada Media Fund

Changes to the Canada Media Fund announced in the Creative Canada framework and Budget 2018.

• The Government is proud to have increased its contribution towards the Canada Media Fund by up to $172 million over five years to stabilize its level of funding.
• The Government has made changes to the Canada Media Fund to ensure that our creative industries succeed in the digital age.
• The Canada Media Fund now enables Canadian online platforms to trigger funding; funds creators at the pre development phase; and supports new sector development activities.

• The Canada Media Fund (CMF) is the largest fund for television and digital content production in Canada. In 2018-19, it provided approximately $343 million in support of 493 television programs and 116 experimental projects. This investment in turn triggered about $1.4 billion in activity in Canada’s creative economy. In 2019-20, the CMF plans to invest $353 million.
• Through CRTC regulations, cable, satellite and Internet Provider TV distributors (also known as BDUs) must contribute no less than five percent of their broadcasting revenues to Canadian programming, the majority of which goes to the CMF. In 2018-19, these distributors contributed $196.3 million to the CMF, a decrease of 3 percent from fiscal 2017-18. This continues a trend of declining revenues that began in 2013-14 due to declining cable and satellite subscription revenues.
• The CMF delivers financial support through two funding streams:
o The Convergent Stream (2019-20: $283.9 million) encourages the creation of convergent television and associated digital media content such as games, interactive Web content, on-demand content, podcasts, webisodes and mobisodes. Supported content must appear on at least two platforms, one of which is television. Genres funded are drama, documentary, children’s and youth, variety and performing arts.
o The Experimental Stream (2018-2019: $48.3 million) is project-based funding that supports the creation of leading edge interactive digital content and software applications created exclusively for the Internet, wireless, or other new/emerging platforms.
• In its 2018 Budget, the Government fulfilled the commitment it made in the Creative Canada policy framework to increase the federal contribution to the CMF by announcing an increase of up to $172 million over five years and $42.5 million ongoing thereafter. This will ensure CMF funding levels are maintained at the 2016-17 level, despite falling BDU revenues.
• In response to Creative Canada engagement, the CMF implemented changes in 2018-19 that resulted in:
o an increase of the funding for the development stage project;
o an increase of the investment in the Experimental Stream,
o an increase of the investments in Indigenous productions; and
o a requirement that the CMF consider that bigger-budget productions provide an international marketing and promotion earlier in the production stage.
• Further changes are implemented in 2019-20:
o The CMF will support content specifically designed for online audiences by authorizing Canadian broadcasters’ and BDUs’ online platforms as eligible triggers for CMF funding.
o The CMF will implement new sector development activities that address key gaps in the production ecosystem. For example, offer training and career opportunities to support gender parity and indigenous production.
o The CMF will also place a greater emphasis on early-stage development projects, for the first time directly providing support to creators for activities like script writing.

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