The Bell Fund in 2012 invested $12.8 million in 147 projects, according to its latest annual report, released last week.

That included supporting through its production program 99 digital media and related TV projects, like Big Brother Canada‘s cross-platform extension produced by Secret Location, Degrassi season 12 and its digital properties from Epitome Pictures, a third season of Sinking Ship’s Dino Dan and its immersive web game and tablet-based games, and the companion digital series for The Listener season four on CTV, produced by Smokebomb Entertainment.

The fund backs projects through several programs, including ones focused on development, production, professional development and low-budget production.

In 2012, the Bell Fund also launched three new programs: Performance Accelerator, Legacy Production and TV Development Online Digital Pilot.

The Performance Accelerator, a grant of up to $75,000 per project, was launched to maximize opportunities for existing digital media projects to optimize audience engagement and monetization on an on-going basis. In 2012, Radical Sheep animated series Stella and Sam received funding for an app refresh by Zinc Roe Productions, while Groupe ECP’s Visez.ca for TVA also received backing under the Performance Accelerator program.

The Legacy Production program was designed to support classic Canadian TV programs that haven’t previously had a digital media component, with a max grant of $250,000 for a digital component, plus a potential bonus matching any broadcaster cash contribution, to a max of $100,000.

And the TV pilot program was launched to support development of potential new TV programming through the backing of pilot or demo content production, to a maximum of $100,000. A total of six projects received backing under this program, including Farmhouse Productions’ Terry’s Off, which began production in February and premiered May 15 on Travel + Escape.

The full list of 2012 supported projects is available here.