TORONTO – The Canadian Television Fund said on Monday that it will provide $275 million to Canadian television producers for the 2008-2009 fiscal year.
Through the Broadcaster Performance Envelope (BPE) system, the CTF will allocate $173 million to English-language broadcaster envelopes and $79 million to French-language broadcaster envelopes.
These funds will support English and French programming in the genres of Drama, Children’s and Youth, Variety & Performing Arts, and Documentaries. The 2008-2009 BPE allocations are listed on the CTF website, www.ctf-fct.ca.
Initiated in 2004, with English Drama being incorporated two years later, the Broadcaster Performance Envelope system “is a market-oriented funding mechanism, with Broadcasters acting, in essence, as the proxy for Canadian audiences,” says the CTF.
“Envelopes or allocations of funding are made to Canadian broadcasters, allowing them to allocate CTF funds to projects on behalf of the CTF, subject to eligibility requirements and minimum broadcaster license fee thresholds. Broadcaster envelopes are calculated on the basis of performance factors and are recalculated each fiscal year, providing a regular re-balancing of the system. CBC/Radio-Canada receives 37% of the total BPE allocation as a condition of the CTF’s Contribution Agreement with the Department of Canadian Heritage.”
Additional funds of approximately $23 million will be allocated to development projects, French Language Projects Outside of Quebec, Aboriginal Production, and Versioning.
