About the CMPA
The CMPA is Canada’s national trade association for independent English-language media producers.
What is the CMPA?
The Canadian Media Producers Association is Canada’s trade association for independent producers. We represent hundreds of companies engaged in the development, production and distribution of English-language content for TV, feature film and digital media channels.
The CMPA’s diverse membership produces an incredible variety of projects, from acclaimed indie films to animated kids’ shows—and everything in between. Have a favourite Canadian TV show? Chances are one of our members produced it. Those Canadian films getting all the hype on the festival circuit? Again, it’s more than likely you’re hearing about our members’ work.
We work behalf of our members to ensure a bright future for domestic media production and Canadian content. Here’s how:
- We promote the outstanding content that our members produce, building awareness of the cultural and economic value of our industry.
- We advocate on behalf of our members before federal and provincial governments on policy that affects our industry (such as broadcasting, copyright, taxation and trade).
- We negotiate labour agreements with key unions and guilds, and we support our members when dealing with these agreements.
- We run mentorship programs to foster the careers of Canada’s next generation of producers.
- We put on Canada’s leading industry conference, Prime Time, which connects participants working in every area of the industry.
- We produce a number of publications, including the annual economic report Profile and Indiescreen magazine.
The CMPA has offices in Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver, and is governed by a board of directors composed of CMPA members. To ensure broad member representation, the directors are independent producers from small, medium and large companies from every region in Canada. They work in television production, theatrical feature film, digital media and production service.
To learn more about our governance, please contact:
Liz Shorten
Chief Operating Officer
1-604-694-2711 / 1-866-390-7639 ext. 122
liz.shorten@cmpa.ca
The CMPA is committed to advancing equity, diversity, inclusion & access within our organization and in the Canadian media industry more broadly.
We will work with both members and non-members to advance equal opportunities and inclusion for all people in the industry. We believe that an inclusive industry empowers Canadian creators to reach and relate to audiences at home and around the world.
The CMPA is also dedicated to providing customer service that is accessible to and inclusive of all our customers. Learn more about our Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities Policy.
CMPA
1948
The original non-profit association, the Association of Motion Picture Producers and Laboratories of Canada (AMPPLC), is founded. Television has yet to arrive on the scene.
1955
CBC television is now in 66% of Canadian homes, surpassing radio’s reach.
1963
The Cannes Film Festival screens its first Canadian film: the beluga-hunt documentary Pour la suite du monde.
1967
The Canadian Film Development Corporation (CFDC) is established to support the Canadian feature film industry.
1968
The Broadcasting Act establishes the Canadian Radio-television Commission (CRTC) to regulate and supervise all aspects of the Canadian broadcasting system.
CMPA
1974
The association changes its name to the Canadian Film and Television Association (CFTA).
1983
The Canadian Broadcast Program Development Fund is established.
CMPA
1984
The film and TV production industry is booming. The CFTA becomes federally incorporated.
1984
The Canadian Film Development Corporation (CFDC) becomes Telefilm Canada, the name we know it by today.
CMPA
1985
The CFTA joins forces with the Canadian Association of Motion Picture Producers (CAMPP), boosting its lobbying power.
CMPA
1988
The CFTA also merges with the Canadian Television Program Distributors’ Association (CTPDA).
CMPA
1989
Copyright reform and Canada’s Free Trade Agreement with the US creates new retransmission rights. The CFTA forms the Canadian Retransmission Collective (CRC) to make sure that independent producers enjoy these rights.
CMPA
1990
The CFTA merges with the larger independents’ Association of Canadian Film & Television Producers, creating the Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA).
1991
The Broadcasting Act is updated for the first time since 1968.
CMPA
1994
Reflecting British Columbia’s unique regulatory and legislative environment, the BC Producers Branch is born.
1995
The Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit is introduced to encourage the creation of Canadian film and television programming—and an active domestic independent production sector.
1996
The Canadian Television and Cable Production Fund (later named CTF) is founded as a public-private partnership to support the production and broadcast of Canadian television programs.
1998
It’s a brave new (digital) world: the Canada New Media Fund is established to fund multimedia content and support Canadian creativity. The fund is administered by Telefilm Canada.
CMPA
1999
The CFTPA forms the Producers Audiovisual Collective of Canada (PACC), which manages and distributes secondary-use royalties (e.g., from the rental of video recordings).
CMPA
2001
The CFTPA begins representing digital media producers.
2005
The CBC and its content become available to Canadians on digital platforms.
2009
The CTF becomes Canada Media Fund (CMF), which aims to support convergent content accessible on a variety of platforms.
CMPA
2010
New era, new name: the CFTPA becomes the Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA), to better reflect our multi-screen world.
CMPA
2016
Another name change, this time to Canadian Media Producers Association (still CMPA), to better reflect our members: producers.
The CMPA has founded and appoints the Boards of Directors of two not-for-profit organizations to promote rights management and compensation for producers.
Keeping track of copyright uses and collecting royalties can be a complicated task. To allow producers to focus on creating their next great piece of content, the CMPA founded this not-for-profit copyright collective:
Canadian Retransmission Collective (CRC)
The CRC collects and distributes Canadian-territory retransmission royalties on behalf of over 8,000 rightsholders worldwide. These royalties are collected from retransmitters (such as cable and satellite companies) who profit from providing broadcast signals to their customers. The CRC researches well over 1.7 million hours of programming annually, and has distributed more than $335 million to rightsholders to date.
crc-scrc.ca
The CMPA has also established ISAN Canada, which allows producers to easily register their works using the ISAN global numbering system:
ISAN Canada
ISAN is a global numbering system for audiovisual works—a simple, permanent identifier that can be read by anyone and processed by any system around the world. ISAN Canada issues ISAN numbers to Canadian audiovisual works and registers them in the central database, which is tremendously beneficial for rights administration, permissions and payments. ISAN Canada has over 1,800 registered users.
isan.ca
Ottawa
251 Laurier Avenue West, 11th Floor
Ottawa, Ontario
K1P 5J6
1-613-233-1444
1-800-656-7440 (Canada only)
Toronto
1 Toronto Street, Suite 702
Toronto, Ontario
M5C 2V6
1-416-304-0280
1-800-267-8208 (Canada only)
Vancouver
600–736 Granville Street
Vancouver, British Columbia
V6Z 1G3
1-604-682-8619
1-866-390-7639 (Canada only)