Telefilm, broadcasters give $2.5 million for three new media training institutions

Broadcasters demonstrated a new commitment to new media this week with several big-name, big-dollar funding initiatives. Telefilm Canada joined Corus Entertainment Inc and Bell Globemedia with over $2.5 million in new funding for Canadian new media incubators, including the Institut national de l’image et du son (INIS), the Canadian Film Centre (CFC), and the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). Topping the list, Bell Globemedia has committed $1.5 million for a training centre in new media and digital animation at BCIT. The donation is the largest the institute has ever received, earmarked for the creation of a new lab to open in October with Macintosh G4 computers devoted to new media design, animation, and DVD production. The facility will accommodate over 120 students. Telefilm Canada announced shortly afterward that it would help set up a new media program at INIS. The curriculum will focus on content development, with emphasis on script writing for interactive media and the use of multimedia tools and languages. Funding for the program will come from the Sectoral Development Assistance component of Telefilm’s multimedia fund. Telefilm officials tout the program as the only French-language centre of its sort in North America. No dollar figure was attached to the announcement. The money may be some of the last spent by Telefilm on new media before the release of a long-awaited report by auditors Ernst & Young on the multimedia fund, which could result in wholesale changes to how the fund is allocated (CNM, Feb. 21/01). The report has been inexplicably delayed for months, but officials tell Canadian NEW MEDIA that it is due for public release in the very near future. Rounding out the list, Corus has announced $1 million to create a digital animation and new media studio at the Canadian Film Centre. The centre will be an add-on to the centre at the E.P. Taylor Windfields estate in Toronto, but CFC officials are reluctant at this point to provide further details. Ana Serrano, head of the Bell Habit@t centre at the CFC, will head the facility, which will be devoted to professional development programs still under review. The funding is part of Corus’ benefits package presented to the CRTC as part of its takeover of Power Broadcasting – money that has also funded a women’s new media accelerator program at the centre, which was officially announced this week (CNM, Mar. 22/01). "I think what’s happening is the fact that there will be some form of new media entertainment product that will be developed, that are being developed now and will continue to be developed in the future," Serrano told CNM. "That’s of no doubt to anyone in the industry despite all of the things that are going on in terms of the dot com stuff. But, interactive television will happen. The gaming industry’s a testament to the success of interactive entertainment. It’s basically a no-brainer for broadcasters and the entertainment industry sector to want to embrace what the next generation of entertainment will be." The centre will likely work on content ranging from interactive, animated kids’ shows to cell phone games, she says.

Telefilm, broadcasters give $2.5 million for three new media training institutions

Broadcast | June 14, 2001

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