A recently created national equity investment fund from Shaw Communications will hand out over US$1.63 million this year to support Canadian kids, youth and family programming.

The fund will provide equity investment of up to 15% of the production budget, capped at US$163,000 per project, to kids-, youth- and family-oriented programs licensed to conventional, specialty and pay TV networks. A regional bonus, to a maximum of US$33,000, is available to producers in Nova Scotia.

Loans for versioning into other languages for previously funded projects are also available. Fiction, nonfiction, series, pilots, specials, documentaries, variety, animation and TV movies are all eligible for funding, so long as they meet a minimum of eight out of 10 Canadian content points. Canadian distribution must remain with a Canadian, and in the case of international treaty co-productions or co-ventures, Canadian copyright must be held by a Canadian. Minority co-productions are not eligible.