English POV Program

This program is designed to support the growth of English-language point of view (POV) documentaries. 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. The budget of the English POV Program was $5.5 M in 2016-2017.

A total of 15 documentaries received $5.0M. Commitments through the POV Program have grown 65.0% since 2012-2013. 14 feature-length and a one-hour project were funded. The average television project budget reached a 5-year high of $763K, with a slight increase from 2015-2016. Two-thirds of convergent projects had digital media second screen components. English POV Program projects received an additional $482K from the Performance Envelope Program and regional incentives. Regional projects received 50.2% of funding in 2016-2017.

Broadcasters triggering English POV program projects in 2016-2017 were Documentary Channel, TVO, Knowledge, Super Channel, The Movie Network, CBC, Canal D, RDI, ARTV, and Super Écran. 

CMF contributions to POV television financing were up this year to 41.7% compared to last year’s 38.8%. Foreign financing of television projects declined to 0.8% from last year’s 3.2%. Three projects had small foreign TV licences. The “Other” category provided a significant share of financing in 2016-2017, including crowdfunding financing through Kickstarter for one project.