TORONTO – Every one dollar invested by the Canada Media Fund (CMF) to support Canada’s audiovisual industry generated $3.99 in production activity, the highest leverage ratio since the CMF was created in 2010, according to the CMF’s bilingual annual report for the 2016-2017 fiscal year.
The CMF invested $361.6M in Canadian television and digital media projects in 2016-2017, down 2.7% (or $10.1 million) from the previous fiscal year. Despite the reduction in funding, a total of $1.4B of industry activity was triggered, a 0.4% increase from 2015-2016. This high level of production activity is a testament to the CMF’s contribution to the creation of over 140,000 jobs in Canada’s audiovisual sector, continued the report.
The CMF also partnered with 64 industry events and contributed to an additional 25 industry events in Canada and internationally that aligned with its objectives of promoting Canadian content, featuring Canada as a coproduction partner of choice and sharing industry intelligence. In addition, as a result of its work in identifying industry and market trends in the screen-based sector, the CMF continued to build on its position as a go-to source for critical and reliable industry information, available on its CMF Trends website.
Other highlights from the past year include new initiatives designed to increase women in key roles on CMF-funded productions and the Fund's efforts in the creation of a dedicated Indigenous Screen Office tasked with supporting the development, production and marketing of Indigenous content.
“Our role at the CMF is to invest in and promote the content that continues to position Canada as a global leader in audiovisual production, but also to foster the next generation of creative Canadians,” said CMF president and CEO Valerie Creighton, in the report. “This vision was the cornerstone of our work in 2016-2017. Our objective is to ensure that our television and innovative digital media productions remain fundamental expressions of Canadian identity, and vehicles by which we tell our stories. Stories of an optimistic, multilingual and inclusive country. Stories that draw from Canada’s vast wealth of diverse perspectives.”
