TORONTO – Looking to ensure certain levels of TV production is maintained across Canada, the Canadian Television Fund today announced the creation of a new production incentive.
The pilot program is designed to encourage production where volumes have declined significantly, said the press release.
The first production areas to benefit from this $5 million incentive include Atlantic Canada and Quebec, where production activity fell below the target level in 2007-2008, reads the statement. As such, two separate CTF allocations of $2.2 million and $2.8 million have been created for productions based in Quebec and Atlantic Canada, respectively, for 2008-2009. Applications will be accepted beginning May 20th and until the allocations for the incentives are depleted or December 8, 2008, whichever comes first.
"The Canadian Television Fund’s mandate is to support production that represents all parts of this diverse country," said Valerie Creighton, president of the CTF. "The commitment to the new production incentive will support a minimum level of production in each of five designated areas."
The CTF will monitor production activity in Atlantic Canada; Quebec; Ontario and Nunavut; the Prairies; and British Columbia and the Yukon and Northwest Territories. If production activity falls below 20% of a five year average in any area, the CTF may implement the Production Incentive in that area in the following fiscal year, according to the release.
The PI is for English-language production and will take the form of a licence fee top-up, consisting of 10% of a project’s eligible costs up to a maximum of $1 million per project. The incentive will be awarded to eligible projects on a first-come, first-served basis. It will be awarded separately and in addition to any amounts contributed to eligible projects through other CTF streams.
Projects with eligible licence fees from Canadian broadcasters who do not have a CTF Broadcaster Performance Envelope are eligible. As per the CTF’s Contribution Agreement with the Department of Canadian Heritage, 37% of the program is reserved for projects with Eligible License Fees from the CBC.
To meet the requirements of the Contribution Agreement, $2.5 million has been added to the CTF’s support of French-language production. Of this $2.5 million, 10% will support French-language production outside of Quebec.
