OMDC offers business development program tailor-made for new media

New media producers are welcoming a new business development and funding program, Pioneering Content, now being offered by the Ontario Media Development Corp. (OMDC). The initiative, announced March 7, offers support in the form of consultation and access of up to $70,000 in cash grants to six project teams to create prototype collaborative, innovative media projects. The six projects will be chosen by May. OMDC officials stress that the program is not intended specifically for the new media sector but is being offered across the spectrum of the book, film, television, interactive digital media, music and magazine sectors. Digital content producers, however, in conversations with Canadian NEW MEDIA have received the program as being tailor-made for their industry. Several of the program’s guidelines should play directly into their hands, they say, including a requirement for making innovative use of technology. The program is intended to result in a prototype or product proof-of-concept for commercialization for projects that will involve at least two collaborating organizations from different cultural media industries and incorporate the innovative use of current or emerging technologies. OMDC is also encouraging prospective applicants to the program to work with Communications and Information Technologies Ontario (CITO) researchers in their activities. The program is one of the first, alongside OMDC’s BIG event, to incorporate a specific element of collaboration between sectors – a goal explicitly embraced by the agency since a corporation-wide review of programs last summer. "We wanted to offer some activities that were sector-specific to help build the strength in each individual industry and then offer some other programs – this being one of them – that would help the sectors work together. The reason we’re doing that…is to increase audiences and create new revenue streams," says Sherri Hills, acting director of the OMDC’s business innovation group. Adds consultant Patrick Crowe, who was brought on last October to advise on the program: "We wanted to foster a sense of community as well, instead of just being a source of funding." The program is also being praised for its application process, modelled on programs such as Canadian Heritage’s and CANARIE Inc.’s E-learning Program and Applied Research in Interactive Media Program. Initially, the Pioneering Content program will solicit only expressions of interest (EOI), which are due April 15. The process stands in contrast to funds such as Telefilm Canada’s Canada New Media Fund, and even some of the OMDC’s other programs. Says Hills: "We know that in our program Calling Card for film and television, it’s a very extensive application. Most applications are a couple of inches thick of paper. We felt perhaps this time there was a way to pre-review. If people didn’t get it, or weren’t eligible, they wouldn’t have gone down the road so far in putting together a really extensive application." While several aspects of the program have drawn praise from producers, an information session March 14 in Toronto did see some questions put to OMDC staff. Hills and Crowe, on hand to answer queries, steadfastly refused to narrow down the criteria for successful projects beyond what are already contained in the guidelines, hoping to see some innovative proposals. One producer also had questions about the tight timeframe for the EOI process, saying it wouldn’t allow sufficient time to build further financing from programs such as the Telefilm fund or the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund into the package. Hills, however, responded: "We want to get this out and get this moving. If we keep waiting for the Bell fund or for Telefilm, it’s not going to happen. You might have to go it alone."

OMDC offers business development program tailor-made for new media

News | 03/21/2003 5:00 am EST

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