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  • Canada Media Fund Names 27 Projects For Production Funding

13th October 2010

Canada Media Fund Names 27 Projects For Production Funding

Canada Media FundThe Canada Media Fund (CMF) today announced the first round results of its Experimental Stream. Twenty-seven projects were approved for production funding in the form of CMF equity investment commitments for a total of $12.9 million. While the average commitment is $478,000, three requests received the maximum $1 million.

Twelve projects are in English, nine are French, six are bilingual and consist of twelve games, five websites, three mobile applications, three interactive web series, and four software applications. A total of $8.6 million and $4.3 million was committed to English and French production projects, respectively. Approved production applicants are based across Canada, with six from BC, one from Alberta, four from Toronto, one from Ontario excluding Toronto, twelve from Montréal, two from Quebec excluding Montréal, and one from PEI.

In addition, eleven projects were approved for development funding for a total of $1.6 million. The average commitment is $149,000. Four projects are in English, four in French, and three bilingual. Total English commitments are $1.1 million and total French are $540,000. Two of the successful development applicants are based in BC, six in Montréal, two in Quebec excluding Montreal, and one in Toronto. The types of projects include websites, games, and applications – please see the CMF decisions page for a full listing of successful applicants.

As well, seven projects were approved for marketing funding for a total of $1.6 million. The average commitment is $234,000. Five projects are in English, one in French, and one bilingual. Total English commitments are $1.1 million and total French are $540,000. Three projects are based in BC, one in Montréal, one in Quebec excluding Montreal, and two in Toronto. Projects to be marketed include games, websites, and an application.

Projects were assessed on the following factors: innovation (40%), production team (15%), business plan (30%), and distribution strategy (15%). For production projects, the innovation and production team factors, comprising a total of 55% of the assessment, were evaluated by a jury of Canadian and international industry experts (bios provided below). All remaining factors for production applications, plus all development and marketing applications, were assessed by CMF Program Administration analysts. Projects were assessed within categories based on the stage of the project, i.e. development, production, or marketing, to ensure similar projects competed against each other.

Of the $27 million in funding available through this stream, 60% is being disbursed in the first round and 40% in the second. Applications submitted for the first round vastly exceeded the $16.2 million available at this round. Over 250 applicants requested almost $90 million to support 120 production ($57 million requested), 112 development ($25 million requested), and 21 marketing ($8 million requested) projects. As a result of the high demand experienced in the first round, the second and final deadline for applications has been extended from October 4 to November 12, 2010. All decisions made by the CMF are considered final.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 13th, 2010 at 2:26 pm and is filed under Awards, Business News, Government, National News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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