TORONTO – The Canada Media Fund (CMF) has set its 2017-2018 program budget at $349.7 million, some $21 million less than last year’s budget.
The CMF program budget is supported by revenue estimates for the coming year based on contributions from the Government of Canada; Canada’s cable, satellite and IPTV distributors; and recoupment and repayment revenues from funded productions. The program budget reflects a stable contribution from the Government of Canada and an expected decline in Broadcast Distribution Undertakings’ contributions to the CMF for the year to come.
“We understand that a program budget decrease of 5.8 per cent will have an impact on Canada’s audiovisual industry”, said president and CEO Valerie Creighton, in the news release. “Faced with declining revenues, we remain committed to making our programs as efficient and accessible as possible. We have reduced the CMF’s administration budget to direct the most funds possible to our programs. Our funding programs align with the CMF’s corporate objectives, requirements established by Canadian Heritage, and are the result of an analysis of results from 2016-2017 and important feedback from stakeholders.”
The breakdown of the 2017-2018 program budget is available here and click here for a summary of changes to the CMF program guidelines.
The CMF will host webcasts on April 11, 2017 to provide an overview of changes to the programs and to answer any questions. The French-language webcast will be at 11:00 AM ET and the English-language webcast will be at 2:00 PM ET. Details on how to join the webcasts will be communicated shortly.
