Diverse Languages Program

The Diverse Languages Program is designed to support independent production in languages that reflect the diversity of Canadians by funding projects in languages other than English, French, or Aboriginal languages. This program is part of the Canada Media Fund’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 according to a selective process using an evaluation grid.

The CMF contributed a total of $1 million to eight projects in six languages: Brazilian Portuguese, Italian, Mandarin, Punjabi, Spanish and Tamil.  More than 75% of funding went towards documentaries, while the remainder was almost evenly split between dramas and a children’s and youth project.

Footnote

The Diverse Languages Program was oversubscribed in 2010-2011.

Financing Sources

Broadcasters were the primary funding contributor to Diverse Language projects, providing 40% of television budgets through license fees.  CMF for its part provided one third of television budgets on average.

Digital media components received 10% of total funding.  The CMF was the largest funding contributor to digital media components, providing almost 50% of budgets.