Telefilm Canada, the Canada Media Fund (CMF), Indigenous Screen Office (ISO), and National Film Board (NFB) have announced a strategic partnership to harmonize the measurement and collection of audience data.

In an announcement on Thursday, the federal audiovisual organizations said they’d been working with the Department of Canadian Heritage for more than a year to modernize the Canadian audiovisual ecosystem, saying the “concerted audience-centred approach will inform more effective strategies for reaching audiences, increasing the impact of the richness and diversity of Canadian and Indigenous stories —whether in feature films, television, documentaries, or animated films— and ensuring its discoverability across digital platforms and cinemas.”

“This joint initiative is a foundational step towards centering audiences around everything that we do, combining our expertise and audience-data to bridge the gap between our ecosystem’s value chains and audiences,” said Julie Roy, Executive Director and CEO of Telefilm. “The continuity of our partnerships is paving the way for us to better support the cultural impact of Canadian and Indigenous cinema and position our stories where they belong – at the forefront of screens at home and abroad.”

Roy told Broadcast Dialogue that the four national organizations will begin to analyze the tools they currently use for audience measurement to “map out” the scope of the collaboration.

“In the coming weeks and months, we will involve industry partners as they have an important role to play in this collective work,” said Roy.

“This is just the beginning of a major undertaking that will lead to a more concerted action with not only the funding agencies, but will also involve the audiovisual sector at large,” added Valerie Creighton, President and CEO of the Canada Media Fund. “By modernizing how we gather and share audience insights, we will ensure the viability of Canadian content in an era of rapid broadcast and digital change.”