Development

The Canada Media Fund (CMF) supports the development and pre-development of Canadian content mainly through its Development Program.  This program is part of the CMF’s Convergent Stream; thus, projects funded through this program must include content to be developed for distribution on at least two platforms, one of which must be television and the other, digital media.  Development funds have also been earmarked in other convergent stream programs as well.

For English-language projects, funding from this program is allocated through broadcaster envelopes, while for French-language and Aboriginal-language projects, funding is allocated according to a selective process, using an evaluation grid.

In 2010-2011, the CMF contributed $11.38 million to 308 convergent development projects.  English-language projects received $7.03 million, over 75% of which was spent on drama projects.  French-language projects received $3.77 million, of which more than 50% was spent on drama projects and 40% on documentary projects.  Aboriginal-language projects received $0.58 million.

Digital media components received 7% of total funding. Overall, French-language digital media components received more funding than English-language digital media components, despite a substantially lower number of projects.  In fact, the highest amount of funding to any genre and language category went to French-language documentary projects.

Footnote

The Development Program’s budget for 2010-2011 was $13 million, $9 million for English-language projects and $4 million for French-language projects. Both English and French-language development were therefore underspent by approximately 20% ($2 million in English and $700,000 in French).  All Aboriginal development funds were spent.