Francophone Minority Program

The Francophone Minority Program (FM) is designed to encourage the creation of projects that reflect the realities experienced by French-language communities living outside the province of Quebec. This program is part of the Canada Media Fund’s (CMF) Convergent Stream; thus, projects funded through this program must include content to be produced for distribution on at least two platforms, one of which must be television and the other, digital media. Funding from this program is allocated according to a selective process, using an evaluation grid.

Total French CMF production funding to provinces outside of Quebec totaled $11.5 M or 12% of French funding. This includes $1.3 M from other convergent stream programs. 100% of the program allocation was spent in 2011-2012 supporting 117.5 television hours. Total budgets have increased from the 5-year average of $24.9 M to $26.7 M as funding increased by $1.1 M over the same period. Similarly, average budgets per hour have increased from $223 K to $228 K.

Production

Development

Documentaries received 52% of funding, compared to 43% last year. Projects originated from across the country, with the highest percentage of funding going to Ontario at 47%, 33% to New Brunswick, 12% to Manitoba and 8% to British Columbia.

By Province

There were 12 digital media components funded in 2011-2012, one more than the previous year. Overall, digital media funding decreased from 2010-2011, from $427 K to $362 K which represented less than 4% of total production funding.

The FM program provided 38% of overall financing to Francophone Minority projects. Broadcasters provided around 27% for both television and digital media projects. Broadcasters licensing projects were ARTV, Canal D, Radio-Canada, TFO, and TV5. Radio-Canada and ARTV licensed 18 projects and TFO licensed 7, while TV5 licensed 2 and Canal D licensed 1.

FMP Production Financing