The Canada Media Fund on Wednesday announced changes to its Experimental Stream program, which will affect investment allocations and its recoupment policy.

Starting with the second round of 2012-2013 projects, the program, which provides either development, production or marketing and promotion funding for interactive digital media or software application projects, such as mobile apps or video games, will offer investment allocations of 45 per cent on signing, 35 per cent for the beta version of a project, and 20 per cent for the end of a project.

Other changes made to the program this year will see it offer different recoupment policies based on whether a project is a Finished Project, meaning it’s at or near the stage in which it will be commercialized, or a Live Exploitation Project, which will continue to release new versions after its initial launch.

The Experimental Stream program has also changed the way it contributes to projects.

Where it once offered non-interest-bearing loans to be repaid within six months after a project’s commercialization, the program will now offer support for marketing and promotion projects in the form of a recoupable advance, which is repaid from generated revenue.

In addition, the CMF has clarified that projects are eligible for more than one program, but the maximum total investment a project can receive is $1 million.

According to program guidelines, projects in the development and marketing and promotions streams are eligible for a contribution of up to 75% or $500,000 of a project’s cost, whichever is less.

Projects in the production stream, meanwhile, can receive up to 75%t or $1 million dollars in contributions.

Eligible costs include research and content preparation, wages, hardware and software, and the expenses of putting content online, among others.