A booming cable and direct-to-home industry has provided the Canadian Television Fund’s Licence Fee Program with an additional $18 million this year.

‘As the industry prepared for its year end, revenues from the private sector came in higher than expected,’ said ctf chair Richard Stursberg, who made the announcement at this month’s Hot Docs festival in Toronto. ‘Our funding from dth alone has increased 50% since the ctf’s first year in 1996 and we are pleased to say that productions of all genres are the beneficiaries.’

Already, a portion of the new money has been assigned to doc production.

Because of the extra funds, 46% of doc applications were supported, rather than the 38% that would have been offered funding before the year-end figures were tallied.

In addition to allocating the remaining funds across the board, (two-thirds English, one-third French) in accordance with the size of each genre, the ctf has reserved funds this fall for point-of-view docs which did not fare well this year but are seen as important in reflecting a Canadian perspective.

Of the new $18 million, Stursberg estimates that roughly $12 million was derived from cable, $2 million from dth and $2 million from smart, low-risk investments from the fund.

The crtc takes 3% of gross broadcast revenues and gives at least 80% of it to the ctf. The remaining 20% can be divided among unrelated funds.

The ctf, meanwhile, has released its list of documentaries to receive funding through the lfp in this round. Here are some highlights:

In Western Canada, the fund favored series from a number of producers, including Great North, which will receive lfp dollars for 13 half-hours of Circus, 13 episodes of The Things We Do For Love, 13 eps of Going Home, 13 eps in series four of The Canadians: Biographies of a Nation and for From Two Planks and a Passion. Victoria-based The May Street Group will have help with six episodes of Virtues: A Family Affair and with the one-off A Father for the North: The Story of Father Mouchet.

cbc’s doc strand Life and Times has a lot of lfp support this time out, for programs on: Alex Colville and Don Messer (90th Parallel Film & Television, Toronto), Buzz Hargrove (Barna-Alper, Toronto), Robert Munsch (Take 3 Productions, Toronto), Tim Horton (Make Believe Media, Vancouver), Silken Laumann (Force Four Entertainment, Vancouver), and Veronica Tennant: Renaissance Woman (M.D.F. Productions, Toronto).

Elsewhere on the biography trail are French productions on Guy Lafleur and Rene Lecavalier (Serdy Video, Longueuil, Que.), Jean-Pierre Nolet/Raymond Charette (Groupe Sagittaire, Montreal), and Jean-Claude Labreque/Pere Sablon (Telefiction, Montreal).

Another Toronto prodco, Viva Entertainment, has caught lfp’s favor with several titles, including High on Life: The Story of Caritas, Ricordi (Memories): A Chronicle of the Italian Canadian Century, Siguiendo la luna (Following the Moon): Latino Culture in Canada, and A Keen Soldier: A Canadian in Italy.

Montreal’s Galafilm receives cash towards six episodes of Chiefs, for Weather Worship, for a six-pack of Ecole de danse docusoap and for 10 eps of Hopital Ste. Justine. Also from Montreal, Productions Pixcom has lfp funds for 26 stories of the sea in the bilingual Odyssees, l’histoire maritime du Canada/Odysseys, Canada’s Maritime History and for 10 instalments of Technopolis. Telefiction is also doing 26 eps in Vivre a deux ii, and 10 eps of Lignes d’univers.

Vancouver’s David Paperny Films will be busy, as will Montreal’s Amerimage-Spectra. David Paperny projects receiving lfp bucks include: Forced March To Freedom, 13 instalments of Kink, and four episodes of Titans. For Amerimage-Spectra, meantime, the lfp analysts smiled on Les commandeurs de l’ordre de Jacques Cartier, Les grands comediens de chez nous, and Festival international de jazz de Montreal vu par Francois Girard.

Vancouver’s Force Four Entertainment will need more than a force of four to produce its lucky titles, which include: Innocent Tricks, 26 eps of You…Me & the Kids and the aforementioned Life & Times.

For the complete list, please see the website:

(www.canadiantelevisionfund.ca/frames_HomeLinks/top_150300.htm)

For ctf info:

(www.canadiantelevisionfund.ca)