New Zealand And Canada Announce Digital Media Collaboration
The Canada Media Fund has announced that New Zealand and Canada are joining together to establish a million dollar matching fund to encourage the coproduction of innovative digital media projects for online audiences. The Canada-New Zealand Digital Media incentive has $1M CDN ($1.1M NZD) available in the 2014-2015 financial year to be allocated to approximately three eligible projects. Guidelines including details on the selection process will be announced on October 10 with a call for ideas.
NZ On Air and the Canada Media Fund (CMF) have developed the matching fund, the first international digital production funding partnership for both organizations. The matching fund was created for innovative and experimental interactive and/or multiplatform digital media projects that have at least one Canadian and one New Zealand producer.
NZ On Air Chief Executive Jane Wrightson says she expects the collaboration to produce highly original projects. “As the way we consume media changes, NZ On Air is keen to explore and encourage new ideas for making content. We were thrilled to find our Canadian counterparts have similar aspirations and look forward to seeing how producers rise to the challenge of creating appealing content for audiences in both countries.”
Valerie Creighton, CMF President and CEO says: ”As the CMF pursues its objective of finding innovative solutions to support digital media content, we are pleased to announce this new collaboration with NZ On Air. We look forward to having the audiovisual industry in both countries benefit from the wealth of innovative ideas our talented producers have to offer.”
The idea was conceived at a meeting between the chief executives of both organizations in Australia late last year. Having compared notes on the NZ and Canadian funding organizations, the two CEO’s realised they could contribute to each country’s digital media industry by joining efforts and extending funding opportunities for digital media production.
NZ On Air and CMF are contributing equally to the fund and will jointly choose and monitor the successful projects. Guidelines for applicants will be available on both the Canada Media Fund and NZ On Air websites on October 10, 2014.
