COGECO TV PRODUCTION PROGRAM GUIDELINES

OBJECTIVE

To provide Canadian independent producers with financing for the production of scripted television series.

APPLICANT ELIGIBILITY

To be eligible for support, an applicant must:

• be a Canadian independent producer defined as a producer who operates a production company in Canada that is majority owned and controlled by Canadians;
• have at least two years production experience and have already produced at least one broadcast dramatic Canadian television project as an independent producer.

ELIGIBLE PROJECTS

Scripted series with a running time of 30 or 60 minutes per episode (or less for children’s series);

To be eligible for support, projects must:

• have obtained from a Canadian broadcaster(s) with a CRTC broadcasting licence, dealing in good faith and at arm’s length, a licence agreement or firm letter of commitment to licence the production at an appropriate licence fee consistent with industry standards, and a commitment to broadcast in prime time within two years following completion of the production. In the case of children’s programming, the prime time requirement does not apply;
• qualify under the CRTC regulations as Canadian programming with a minimum of six out of ten points for Canadian content certification;
• be written by a Canadian writer;
• in the case of official co-productions, have a Canadian participation of not less than 50% and demonstrate favourable sales and recoupment potential for the Fund;
• have copyright in the completed production beneficially owned by a Canadian citizen or landed immigrant, or by a corporation incorporated under the laws of Canada or a province of Canada;
• not have started principal photography at the time of application;
• submit all final documentation and audits within 3 years from the date of the Financing Agreement with IPF, or the financing commitment may be cancelled;
• be closed captioned and contain described video;
• conform to the industry guidelines on sex‑role portrayal and violence endorsed by the CRTC.

REQUIRED APPLICATION DOCUMENTS

All documents must be submitted via the online application portal.

1. Completed electronic application form
2. Supplemental documents. Please refer to the TV Production Program Document Checklist for a complete list of the required documents.

CMF PERSONA-ID DATA COLLECTION

The IPF is required by the CRTC to consider and report on the identity and representation of individuals associated with applications to its programs. The Canada Media Fund (CMF) is assisting the IPF by providing demographic data analysis and reporting in aggregate using its PERSONA-ID self-identification system.

Applicants to the Cogeco TV Production Program will be asked to submit a CMF PERSONA-ID number for all Producers, Writers and Directors associated with a project. Note that a “Producer” includes Producer, Executive Producer, Co-executive Producer, Supervising Producer, Associate Producer, and Creative Producer.

Writers and Directors must have paid positions on the project and shall be defined in accordance with Guild collective agreements, with the same meaning commonly understood in the broadcast, television and film industries.

To submit to the Cogeco TV Production Program, applicants are only required to provide the CMF PERSONA-ID numbers for the key roles noted above.

More information regarding CMF PERSONA-ID, including how to register, can be found here: https://www.cmf-fmc.ca/persona-id/

Applicants should use the following template to collect the CMF PERSONA-ID numbers of the key team members and upload the completed document to the appropriate upload field in the Cogeco TV Production Program application portal: IPF-CMF Persona-ID list for key roles.

Once an application is submitted, the PERSONA-ID numbers will be provided to the CMF who report back to IPF to determine if a project meets certain thresholds for Diverse Communities and Official Language Minority Communities (OLMC), as required by the CRTC.

The CMF PERSONA-ID data results will be used by the IPF as follows:

• To inform IPF funding decisions per CRTC regulations;
• To report to the CRTC regarding IPF applications and funding decisions;
• To aggregate and include in IPF reports along with other funding statistics.

PERSONA-ID data is subject to the CMF’s data and privacy policy which ensures individual confidentiality. Data exchanged between the CMF and the IPF will be anonymous and aggregated, ensuring that the IPF never has access to an individual's personal information. The goal of this collaboration is to increase the efficiency in data collection across the industry by reducing identification redundancies and leveraging the CMF’s experience and system reliability.

FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTION

Funding for series will be determined on a case-by-case basis. Note that the financial participation of IPF will not exceed that of the broadcaster.

Terms and conditions for investments include the following:

• funding is in the form of equity investments to be recouped according to the terms of the Production Financing Agreement;
• recoupment may be negotiated on a case-by-case basis to ensure favourable recoupment potential for the fund; IPF prefers a percentage share of first tier recoupment;
• a written Financing Agreement duly executed by the successful applicant and IPF establishing the terms and conditions of the investment;
• payments are made according to a payment schedule established for each project;
• acceptance of funding from IPF establishes the Fund’s right to audit all accounts and records of the applicant;
• acknowledgement of the IPF’s Cogeco TV Production Program in credits and promotional material.

EVALUATION PROCESS

Eligible applications are assessed on how well they meet the objectives and general policies of the IPF’s Cogeco TV Production Program.

The Board of Directors evaluates the applications and approves financing.

Notification of decisions will be communicated to the applicants generally six to eight weeks after the application deadline. Successful applicants must finalize financing of their projects within 90 days and meet any other conditions of funding, or the commitment may be cancelled.

All interpretations of these Guidelines and all decisions made by the Board of Directors are at the Board’s absolute discretion. All decisions are final and are not subject to appeal.