The Canada Media Fund (CMF) has introduced changes to accommodate the recently-introduced Terms of Trade agreement between indie producers and broadcasters.

Under the new guidelines, the industry fund will consider a fair market value licence fee received via the Terms of Trade agreement to be an eligible license fee under the CMF guidelines.

“Where a broadcaster has signed the Terms of Trade agreement, the ‘fair market value licence fee’ under the agreement will be counted towards meeting the licence fee threshold, rather than the CMF-defined ‘eligible licence fee,” the CMF stated in its new guidelines.

The move aims to remove inconsistencies raised by the producer-broadcaster arrangement between the Canadian Media Production Association, representing indie producers, and Astral Television Networks, Bell Media, Rogers Broadcasting, Shaw Media, and Corus Entertainment, all of whom have signed the Terms of Trade agreement.

The CMF guidelines stipulate which licence fees are eligible, whether for TV development or production costs, or digital media components.

At the same time, the new CMF guidelines touch on the thorny issue of “other rights,” including rights to interactive content like the internet and mobile, distribution rights or non-Canadian rights.

“The treatment of these rights in CMF-funded projects will now generally be determined under the Terms of Trade agreement,” the industry fund stated.

The CMF does caution the changes aim to “facilitate” the introduction of the Terms of Trade agreement by harmonizing, where possible, the producer-broadcaster agreement with its own programs.

So while the Terms of Trade agreement does allow producers to offer a broadcaster a bundle of rights to be acquired for a single fair market value licence fee, to be considered an eligible licence fee, the CMF wants producers and broadcasters to bargain openly for separate rights, where possible.

“The CMF encourages broadcasters and producers to negotiate the fair market value of all rights,” the fund wrote.