OTTAWA — CACTUS (the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations) announced late Monday it has been chosen by the Department of Canadian Heritage to administer funding for community TV under phases two and three of the Covid-19 Emergency Support Fund for Cultural, Heritage and Sport Organizations.
Licensed community television stations as well as unlicensed not-for-profit community-managed corporations which support community members in producing and distributing community television programming are eligible for funding, says the CACTUS blog post.
Applicants for the Covid-19 relief funding being administered by CACTUS must demonstrate they:
- are eligible community television organizations as defined above;
- produce and broadcast Canadian local programming;
- have been negatively impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has resulted in financial hardship to it and its operations, and is therefore in need of government funding. Eligible expenses include loss of revenue, unexpected expenses and projected budget shortfalls due to Covid-19. Loss claims must be supported by the applicants’ previous three years of financial data to establish a baseline; and
- will not use the contribution amount to cover expenses which are already funded under the Canadian government’s Covid-19 emergency measures, including but not limited to the Canada Emergency Response Benefit, the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy, the Canada Emergency Business Account, and the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance for small businesses, as well as any other federal, provincial or territory and municipal emergency measures.
The deadline to apply is midnight on October 15, 2020, although applications will be accepted after this date on a rolling basis if funds remain, says the CACTUS blog post.
CACTUS did not announce today how much funding is being made available to producers and distributors of community TV programming. However, in July, when it released the final details of its phase two Covid-19 funding, Heritage announced it would provide $1 million in funding for independent groups that provide community television access programming.
For more information, please visit CACTUS’ website at www.cactusmedia.ca.
