Telefilm Canada has announced support for 26 of 168 Canada New Media Fund applications. The applications were submitted for the Sept. 23 deadline and include multiple-phase applications, resulting in support for a total of 21 new products. Of the total, 13 are for products in pre-development/development and eight are for products in the production and marketing phases.

The Atlantic office received 13 English applications, the Quebec office a total of 72 in English and French, the Ontario office received 39 applications in English and one in French, while the Western office received 43 English-language applications.

Telefilm says five of the 21 supported products are new media TV or feature film convergence products, which offer tie-ins between television and film projects and such media as wireless products, interactive games and websites. The other supported products are CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs, multimedia installations, console games, Web content, websites and wireless products. Overall, 24% of the accepted projects are for offline platforms, while 76% are for online platforms.

Sixteen of the 21 products accepted by Telefilm – or 77% – are in the educational/edutainment category.

In fiscal 2001/02, the Canada New Media Fund, administered by Telefilm, received a $9-million annual allocation for a minimum of three years from the Department of Canadian Heritage as one of the components of the Canadian Culture Online Program. CCOP will invest almost $200 million in Canadian online content between May 2001 and March 2004.