There’s more money in the coffers at the Canadian Television Fund, which has renewed two of its programs, with significant increases to each of their budgets. The CTF recently announced that its Production Incentive and Digital Media initiative – which both launched as pilot programs last year – have been extended for 2009/10.

The Production Incentive program, meant to balance out production levels across Canada by focusing on regions where there’s been significant decline, has been raised from $5 million to $10 million, while the Digital Media program grew from $2 million to $10 million.

CTF president Valerie Creighton says the funding for digital media is ‘critical’ for producers to be able to extend their shows through webisodes, mobisodes, games and other digital platforms. The additional money comes from higher revenues at the BDUs which contribute to CTF.

Meanwhile, the Production Incentive program will focus on areas such as Atlantic Canada, which will receive $1.9 million, while English-language productions in B.C., the Yukon and Northwest Territories will have $8.1 million in total at their disposal.

Funds for both programs are available on a first-come, first-served basis. The CTF and the Canada New Media Fund are to set to merge into the $310 million Canada Media Fund by April 2010.