A new national equity investment fund announced by Shaw Communications will hand out over $3 million in its first year to support children’s, youth and family programming

The Shaw Television Broadcast Fund has been established under the 1997 crtc ruling requiring all Canadian licensed broadcast distribution undertakings to contribute 5% of gross annual revenues to the production of Canadian programming. Financial contributors to the fund include Shaw, regional cable tv operators Bragg Communications and Halifax Cablevision, Access Communications and dth satellite service operator Star Choice.

The fund will provide equity investment of up to 15% of the production budget, capped at $250,000 per project, to kids’, youth and family-oriented programs licensed to conventional, specialty and pay-tv networks.

A regional bonus, to a maximum of $50,000, is available to producers in Nova Scotia via contributions from Access and Halifax Cablevision/Bragg. To be eligible, projects must be produced by a Nova Scotia-based company with a minimum 51% ownership in the property and at least 51% of the production budget spent within the province.

Loans for versioning into other languages for previously funded projects are also available.

Fiction, non-fiction, series, pilots, specials, documentaries, variety, animation and tv movies are all eligible for funding so long as they meet a minimum of eight out of 10 Canadian content points.

Worldwide copyright in the completed production must be owned and controlled by a Canadian citizen or Canadian corporation, and Canadian distribution must remain with a Canadian. In the case of international treaty coproductions or coventures, Canadian copyright must be held by a Canadian. Minority coproductions are not eligible.

The stbf is independent of the existing Shaw Children’s Programming Initiative, which supports preschool and children’s programming, and producers of kids’ shows will be eligible to tap both funds.

The stbf is administered by an independent board of directors chaired by Annabel Slaight, vice-chair Don Haig (president, Film Arts), and secretary-treasurer Heather Shaw. Jan Miller (president, Lowenbe Holdings) and Alex Park (Shaw Fund) are also members of the board.

Preference will be given to projects with demonstrated audience appeal; French- or English-language broadcast licences; projects that promote positive role modeling, provide cross-cultural representations and offer closed captioning; and projects that demonstrate favorable sales revenues and recoupment with the potential for a long shelf life.

The board will hold meetings four times a year to administer funds. The deadline for the first round of applications was Oct. 26, followed by a second window tentatively set for Feb. 15, 1999.