Million dollar Telefilm new media envelope under scrutiny as producers call for change

Telefilm Canada has quietly undertaken a review of the Canada New Media Fund’s distribution assistance envelope amid criticism from producers that the program is misguided, Canadian NEW MEDIA has learned. Consultant David Ellis of Omnia Communications Inc. has been sounding out opinions on the program intended to help reduce the cost of buying interactive content to bodies such as content aggregators, portals and others. But many producers say the funding would best be spent on production to help lower the cost of licensing content to begin with. Telefilm and Ellis remain tight-lipped about the review and will only confirm that it is ongoing. A brief email note from a Telefilm spokesperson states only: "David Ellis of Omnia Communications has been retained to report on the distribution envelope. The review was initiated late October 2002 to study distribution issues in Canada and the consultant is currently speaking to distribution companies. He will be compiling his report before the end of this year and I don’t foresee it being made public as it is an internal report aimed at helping Telefilm align the CNMF guidelines to the market reality." Sources say the problem is that since the re-launching of the Canada New Media Fund in late 2001, only one company has taken advantage of the distribution assistance envelope worth about $800,000-$1.2 million annually. The assistance is intended to aid "new media distribution initiatives that aggregate already existing Canadian cultural new media content to increase its profile, presence and market on the Internet. This could include joint distribution initiatives such as portals or the online marketing/distribution of a portfolio of new media content by an individual company or consortium," according to fund guidelines. But, say producers with whom CNM has spoken, that money would be better spent in the production cycle. "I think it’s preposterous," says Stephen Comeau, president of Collideascope Entertainment. "I think that the independent producers community produces content, and the portals distribute it to an audience to get subscriber and advertising revenue. So for them to start shifting the cash away from making the content to subsidize people putting it in front of audiences makes no sense. They should be giving it to the producers so that they can make high-quality content that they can license to these portals at a reduced enough rate that it makes business sense." Comeau’s comments were generally echoed by other producers who spoke off the record with CNM. The distribution envelope is a new component to the Telefilm new media fund, introduced since it was overhauled from the old Multimedia Fund (CNM, Nov. 15/01 and Dec. 13/01). The change was likely made in response to an evolving marketplace, one in which CD-ROMs were fast being outpaced as a distribution medium by the Internet. A confidential March 2001 Ernst & Young report prepared for Telefilm in advance of the changes, and obtained by CNM through Access to Information, states: "The availability of interactive media products that make use of the expanding technology is increasing, however market penetration of these products is behind the high levels of acceptance of the delivery technology. The support for on-line portals included in the federal government’s digital initiative may provide for higher levels of market penetration. "According to IMPS 2000, the current leader in terms of delivery method for multimedia works is the Internet. There has been a definite shift from CD-ROM that dominated just a short time ago. In the very near term, we will see the continued expansion of the Internet whereas in the long term, the delivery portal is unknown but somewhat irrelevant as technologies converge and the consumer moves to a world of seamless information delivery." Such thinking was likely behind the creation of the new distribution envelope as Telefilm grappled with changing technologies. It remains to be seen in the Ellis report, however, whether he recommends a change in the organization’s policy of gearing the fund toward portals – less important a force since the dot com crash – or urges the cash be put back into producers’ pockets.

Million dollar Telefilm new media envelope under scrutiny as producers call for change

News | 12/20/2002 5:00 am EST

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Reuse & Permissions

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us