Industry Consultation

Principles and Objectives of the CMF’s Consultation Policy

The CMF’s Consultation Policy abides by the principle that its consultations with industry stakeholders be meaningful, formal, ongoing and inclusive.  The values that the Policy espouses include transparency, co-operation, communication, balance and results.

The objectives of the consultation process are five-fold:

• To gain high-level stakeholder input into CMF planning and program development and design;
• To be informed of emerging stakeholder issues and priorities;
• To make fully informed policy decisions;
• To maintain two-way communication between the CMF and its stakeholders; and
• To allow stakeholders to be part of, and understand, the CMF’s policy making process.

Overview of Accomplishments

A wide range of industry stakeholders attended or participated via the different elements of the consultation process in 2011-2012.  The knowledge and input of the participants assisted the Canada Media Fund (CMF) in drafting program policies that reflect the needs of the industry.  As well, the process enabled the industry to gain a better understanding of the challenges faced by the CMF in developing program policies that must take into consideration divergent and competitive needs and interests. Overall, there was a high level of engagement and interest by industry stakeholders.

Working Groups and National Focus Group

The CMF called upon industry Working Groups and a National Focus Group to examine key policy issues related to the CMF’s strategic objectives of simplification and rewarding success.  The National Focus Group is comprised of representatives from the BDUs, broadcasters, producers, unions and guilds, private funds, provincial funding agencies and other associations from the television and digital media industries, for a total of approximately 60 industry representatives. The seven industry Working Groups were for their part attended by smaller groups of representatives that had a specific interest in the policy issue at hand.

Digital Media Measurement Advisory Committee

Working with industry stakeholders, the CMF set out to define a common set of performance metrics and performance indicators that will address content consumption across multiple digital media platforms and devices.  Through a series of sessions, participants worked towards developing a measurement framework that:

• meets requirements from Canadian Heritage to report on audience and usage of digital media projects;
• establishes the basis for developing weighting factors which will ultimately be integrated into the calculation of Performance Envelopes; and
• addresses the business and operational realities of the industry

The national advisory committee was composed of over 30 industry stakeholders from broadcaster groups, funding agencies, producers associations as well as independent digital media producers (selected from a broad spectrum of expertise, i.e., web, gaming, mobile apps).

On-line Discussion Forum and Survey

On-line consultation tools were again utilized in the fall and winter.  A dedicated consultation section on the CMF website was created where all documents presented and discussed during the Working Groups and the advisory committee meetings, as well as the calendar of meetings, were available for download.  The consultation section also included a discussion forum to obtain feedback from all stakeholders nationwide.