Every dollar of CMF investment generates four dollars in production activity, says 2016-2017 annual report
Toronto, August 28, 2017 — The Canada Media Fund (CMF) released today its bilingual annual report for the 2016-2017 fiscal year. The report details the various programs and initiatives the CMF undertook in the past year to support Canada’s audiovisual industry. The results of the CMF funding programs, as well as its extensive research and promotional initiatives serve as clear examples of the key role the organization plays as a driver of Canada’s growing digital economy and supporter of our nation’s cultural diversity. Click here to access the 2016-2017 CMF Annual Report.
In 2016-2017, CMF funding triggered $1.4B in production activity across the country. Every $1 of CMF funding generated $3.99 in production activity, the highest leverage ratio since the CMF was created in 2010. 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.
In a context of rapid industry evolution, the CMF’s funding programs contributed $370M to financing the development, production and promotion of 1,270 television and digital media projects in 2016-2017. This level of investment and support was made possible thanks to the continued commitments of the CMF’s funding contributors: the Government of Canada, and Canada’s cable, satellite and IPTV distributors.
“Faced with ongoing transformation of the audiovisual sector, the CMF continued to demonstrate its responsiveness, agility and commitment to its mandate in support of Canada’s screen-based industries,” said Alain Cousineau, Chair of the CMF Board of Directors. “The Board of Directors understands many consequential changes lie ahead for the industry and we look forward to the results of the Government of Canada’s cultural policy review.”
“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 Valerie Creighton, President and CEO, CMF. “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.”
The topic of gender balance was globally prevalent across screen-based industries in 2016-2017. With a firm look to the future, the CMF made a major commitment to diversity and inclusion by announcing a number of tangible gender balance measures to its programs. In addition, resulting from a comprehensive national consultation spearheaded by the CMF with the support of several national partners, the CMF publicly released an Indigenous Screen-based Strategy to empower Indigenous Canadians to engage in and self-determine their own cultural creations.
The CMF partnered with 64 industry events and contributed to an additional 25 industry events in Canada and internationally that aligned with the CMF’s 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.
The online annual report has a feedback section, inviting visitors to the site to share their views and comments on the report. This valuable input will help shape the way the CMF reports on its activities.
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.
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For media requests, please contact:
Maurice Boucher
Director, Communications and Marketing
Canada Media Fund
416-214-4441
mboucher@cmf-fmc.ca
