CMF announces criteria for distribution of $88.8M COVID-19 Emergency Support Fund
Toronto, May 15, 2020 – The Canada Media Fund (CMF) today announced the criteria guiding the administration and distribution of $88.8M in federal government support to television and interactive digital media production companies. This is part of the $500M the Government of Canada is making available through the COVID-19 Emergency Support Fund for Cultural, Heritage and Sport Organizations to help mitigate the impact of the pandemic on Canada’s production sector. Click here to access the criteria.
“We’re thankful to the Government of Canada for its support to businesses in our screen-based industry,” said Valerie Creighton, President and CEO, CMF. “We recognize the trust the government has placed in CMF to administer and distribute these much-needed funds in the most effective and expedient way possible. We hope businesses will benefit from these funds to stay afloat until we weather the storm.”
Parent companies that have received support – either directly or indirectly through their subsidiaries – in 2017-2018, 2018-2019 or 2019-2020 are eligible to receive funding following a formula outlined in the criteria, with caps ranging between $200K and $800K depending on the level of CMF funding received by each company.
These funds seek to help parent companies in Canada’s television and interactive digital media sectors, address financial needs for business continuity of operations, safeguard jobs and support self-employed and freelance workers such as writers, directors, crew, cast and other employees in our industry, so they are in a better position to recover once the pandemic subsides. The funds are intended to complement – and not duplicate – other measures announced by the Government of Canada.
Eligible companies will still have access to the funds if they applied to receive or have received funds through other Government of Canada COVID-19 financial relief initiatives; however, they will not be allowed to use funding from multiple Government of Canada financial relief initiatives for the same expenses.
If an Eligible Applicant has received funding in the previous three years from more than one of either the CMF, Telefilm Canada, or the Canada Council for the Arts, the Applicant must apply to the organization which provided the highest amount of funding over the past three-year period.
The Criteria outlines the general parameters for how the CMF Allocation of the Emergency Relief Funds will be distributed; however, additional information about their company and current circumstances will be requested. Applications through CMF must be submitted via Dialogue starting May 20 and up to June 12, 2020.
As allowed by the directive from Government, the CMF will deliver part of the emergency support funding through targeted initiatives for underrepresented groups, as well as to support regional, cultural and linguistic diversity in our industry. Some of the emergency support funds will also go to CMF’s Canadian film and television festival partners affected by the pandemic. CMF will contact these partners directly to discuss the funding they will receive.
In addition to the distribution of these funds, CMF announced a series of flexibility measures to its program guidelines, processes and envelope manuals, and will introduce additional flexibility measures as it continues discussions with the Government of Canada on ways to respond to the pandemic.
To help workers and companies in the screen-based industries navigate the many programs and resources available to those affected by the crisis, the CMF launched an online information hub. Information on financial support offered through more than 160 programs, as well as other essential resources can now be found at covid.cmf-fmc.ca.
About the Canada Media Fund
The Canada Media Fund (CMF) fosters, develops, finances and promotes the production of Canadian content and applications for all audiovisual media platforms. The CMF guides Canadian content towards a competitive global environment by fostering industry innovation, rewarding success, enabling a diversity of voice and promoting access to content through public and private sector partnerships. The CMF receives financial contributions from the Government of Canada and Canada’s cable, satellite and IPTV distributors. Please visit cmf-fmc.ca.
-30-
Media Contact:
André Ferreira
Communications Manager
416-554-2768
aferreira@cmf-fmc.ca
