Convergent Digital Media Incentive

The Convergent Digital Media Incentive (CDMI) is designed to support convergent or second screen digital media production in Canada. This program is part of the Canada Media Fund’s (CMF) Convergent Stream. Funding from this program is allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. The program is targeted to high-value projects, requiring a minimum $100K budget. The $12.0M budget was fully utilized in 2014-2015.

The CDMI supported 90 projects in 2014-2015, a three-year high. CDMI accounted for 46.4% of convergent DM funding, a three-year low. The CDMI program budget was reduced for 2014-2015, however, funding for digital media from other convergent programs increased. The average commitment in this incentive was 41.5% of project financing while the average budget was $321K, 2.6 times higher than the average budget for convergent DM components that did not access the CDMI. This program triggered production budgets valued at $28.9M, a three-year high.

Documentary projects captured $4.9M or 41.3% of CDMI funding, triggering $11.4M in production activity and 35 projects, highest of all language-genre categories, continuing the past two years’ trend. English Drama and Children’s & Youth received the next largest portions of funding, at $2.8M and $1.8M, respectively. English Drama had the highest average budget, at $475K per project over 16 projects.