IO submitted recommendations to the Canada Media Fund (CMF) re. potential improvements to the current funding programs and their management. 

These recommendations resulted from IO’s Town Hall with industry in December. The latter was specifically organized to discuss these topics. IO initiated discussions with the CMF/Telefilm in December regarding the most urgent issue raised by industry, i.e. insurance requirements. 

This contributed to the decision to release payments to recipients that were held because of insurance matters. The CMF/Telefilm is committed to solving this with us. More to come over the next few weeks. 

Thank you to all of you who provided information, insights, and ideas leading to the recommendations submitted and actions taken.

In other news, Ontario Creates is working on the guidelines for the IDM Fund programs 2021-2022, including the new Discoverability and Commercialization program that will replace the Marketing Support program. As explained by Erin Creasey from Ontario Creates during the special town hall held with her last November, the new program will provide funding for live ops, porting, DLCs and more. Ontario Creates will also improve other aspects of its programs and management such as extending timelines for projects funded under Concept Definition and Production. 

We recently have had the opportunity to take a sneak peek at work-in-progress excerpts of the guidelines. We provided feedback and all in all, the excerpts we reviewed with industry members are in line with the information that Erin communicated to the industry during the town hall. More to come over the next few weeks.

IO is currently inquiring about the eligibility of IDM companies to the Ontario Small Business Support Grant announced in December, in view of the new stay-at-home order. Minister MacLeod’s office will get back to IO on this by Friday or early next week.

Comments on the recommendations and advocacy-related inquiries can be directed to advocacy@interactiveontario.com.