Funds ponder future in digital age

Funds need to re-think how they operate if they want to remain relevant in the digital age, according to a white paper unveiled at Power to the Pixel’s Cross-Media Forum.

The study, entitled “Understanding Funders”, is a joint venture between the Canada Media Fund (CMF), Quebecois cultural agency SODEC and Power to the Pixel.

“The digital technology boom has unbalanced international content production and distribution markets and has also upset our industries’ economics,” said CMF CEO and president Valerie Creighton, who spearheaded the study alongside SODEC chief Monique Simard and Power to the Pixel CEO Liz Rosenthal.

The paper, she said, grew out of a discussion between Simard and Rosenthal at Mipcom last year over how funds like SODEC and the CMF, and their counterparts around the world, could stay relevant in “an ever-growing, ever-changing content production industry”.

“We have different systems in different countries but most of them – apart from that of the US which is basically private – tend to be mixed or totally public and resemble one another in that they were set up in the last 25 to 40 years to finance traditional production of film or TV,” added Simard.

“Now there is no good system that is flexible enough to adapt to the new needs.” 

Taking a broad-brush look at funding models across Europe, North America and Australia, the study identifies six “universal” challenges to funds in today’s digital environment.

These are:

• Re-aligning “often protectionist” legislative and regulatory frameworks to fit “new virtual environments”.
  
  
• Coming to terms with new players in the value chain such as over-the-top services and new content creators.
  
  
• Governance and consensus building. Adapting and reviewing processes and evaluation tools built around TV and film production to fit the new digital environment.
  
  
• Diversification of funding sources. How do funds respond to new sources of finance such as crowdfunding, branded content and private equity as broadcaster and distributor finance wanes?
  
  
• Development of new support programmes adapted to new landscape.
  
  
• Education and professional support to foster audiovisual and digital culture literacy, especially among decision-makers, such as politicians, and young audiences. 

Some funds have already started trying to adapt. The final chapter of the report gives examples of a number innovative funding initiatives including the £15m Yorkshire Content Fund, Telefilm Canada’s Talent Fund, which combines public and private funding, and Web Cosip, the web-focused funding strand of France’s National Cinema Centre (CNC).

“A number of organisations are being very proactive in designing new programmes or initiatives to cope. What we’ve found is an emerging trend of ingenuity and resilience that we hope will grow stronger,” said Creighton.

The white paper will be at the heart of a closed Think Tank meeting involving some 40 fund representatives on the final day of the Power to the Pixel Forum on Friday (Oct 10).

It can be downloaded from the Power to the Pixel site: http://powertothepixel.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/FINAL_Understanding-Funders.pdf