Home Production Financing Plans

Typical financing scenarios piece together public and private equity investments, tax credits, and maybe a broadcast pre-sale or a distribution advance.

The Financing Plan User Rating: / 3 Your financing plan sets out all of the sources of financing for your production, such as: distribution advances; anticipated federal and provincial tax credits; broadcast license fees, equity investments from distributors, broadcasters, funding agencies or private persons; deferrals and producer investments, if any. Ideally, the total of all of these amounts is equal to the budget for the production. If not, you will need to find “gap” financing, from specialized “gap” financiers. Since some of these funds may not be available during production to meet cash-flow requirements, you may need to apply to a bank for interim financing. Read more...   Distribution Advances and Broadcast License Fees User Rating: / 3 A production may be financed through an advance from a distributor or sales agent who has committed to distribute the production, or through a broadcast license agreement with a broadcaster who has committed to air the production.  When such arrangements are entered into before the production is completed, they are commonly referred to as “presales”. Read more...   Equity Investments User Rating: / 1 The financing plan for a production may include equity investments by broadcasters, funding agencies like Telefilm Canada or private investors.  Generally, the investor pays a recoupable amount to the producer in return for a participation in certain proceeds the producer receives.  Usually this participation will involve “net” proceeds made from the exploitation of the production, that is, “gross” proceeds from exploitation minus certain agreed-upon expenses for the distribution and exploitation of the production, as in the sample definition of “net receipts”. Read more...   Tax Credits and Deferrals User Rating: / 1 A major portion of the financing for a production usually comes from federal and provincial tax credits. Unfortunately, tax credit proceeds become available only after the production expenditures have been incurred and the production’s tax returns have been filed and often audited.  As a result, producers frequently look to lenders to interim finance the anticipated tax credit proceeds so that the necessary funds are available to cash-flow the production. Read more...