The Shaw Rocket Fund, Canada’s only dedicated fund for kids content, is asking the CRTC to rule that Rogers must keep contributing until August 2026 so it doesn’t lose its primary source of annual funding.  

There’s been a drawn-out back-and-forth between Rogers and Rocket Fund over the telecommunications giant’s plan to pull its support. Rogers argues it has only committed paying into the fund until the end of this month, while the Rocket Fund wants the CRTC (Canada’s broadcasting regulatory body) to uphold its 2023 decision to automatically renew Rogers’ support of the fund until summer 2026. 

At the heart of this complicated funding issue is the fact that the Rocket Fund was expecting to get roughly US$3.4 million to US$3.6 million (CAD$4.7 million to CAD$5 million) from Rogers for 2026, which would have been the bulk of the fund’s annual budget, says president and CEO Agnes Augustin.  The Rocket Fund will still receive roughly US$217,000 from Rogers in 2026 because the company took ownership of a TV service, she notes.  

Losing this funding will be damaging to the org, Augustin adds. “This is currently Rocket Fund’s primary source of annual funding—and ultimately, funding for the Canadian kids media sector, so this will impact our sustainability.” 

Shaw Rocket Fund has been around since 1998, and has invested about US$209 million in more than 1,000 kids programs, arguably making it Canada’s staunchest supporters of the genre.

Shaw Rocket Fund president and CEO Agnes Augustin tells Kidscreen that Rocket Fund losing Rogers’ contributions “will impact our sustainability.” 

In a statement to Kidscreen‘s sister publication Playback, a Rogers spokesperson argued that a CRTC letter issued in May makes it clear that Rogers’ contributions can stop at the end of August. “Commission staff issued a clear response agreeing that Rogers was to make contributions to the fund until the end of August, consistent with CRTC’s intentions. Beginning in September, these contributions will be redirected to continue supporting Canadian film and television.”

Rocket Fund’s situation is made more complicated by last week’s CRTC decision to give the fund conditional approval to receive contributions from streamers. Any money it gets from this source would have to go towards supporting producers from diverse and official language-minority communities (meaning, their preferred language isn’t one the majority of people use in their province or territory). 

Being eligible for these contributions should be cause for celebration for Rocket Fund, which has been busy campaigning this year to improve funding for Canada’s kids media. The problem is that the fund has to allocate 10% of the projected revenue it gets from streamer and broadcaster contributions to establish a permanent funding envelope for these diverse communities by October 7—potentially before it actually receives any funding. And with the Rogers contribution set to expire at the end of this month, and with streamers also pushing hard to avoid their give-back mandate, meeting this October deadline would be a challenge, Augustin says. 

The org flagged this conundrum to the CRTC when the decision was made. “If required to allocate 10% of its total budget, a scenario with zero contributions from Rogers and [streamers] in 2026 could find the Shaw Rocket Fund legally required to fund projects without the means to do so.” 

CRTC commissioner Ellen Desmond, in a dissenting opinion about that deadline, offered a potential solution last week. “In my view, the Rocket Fund could be listed as an eligible fund with the condition they launch their funding envelope once their financial situation has become more certain, something that could be monitored by the commission in the coming months.”

Image courtesy of Jason Hafso via Unsplash.