Four years ago Cogeco Inc. gave birth to a fund now valued at $5M to support the Canadian television industry. In this short time it has already matured and functions as an important member of the family of Canadian private funds for the funding of Canadian audiovisual productions.

We have participated in a rich variety of productions from a cross-section of companies during the past four years and have witnessed the successful transformation of ideas initiated by our script development fund into exciting new Canadian dramatic series. We feel the pride of parenthood towards these investments which we nurtured from the infant stages.

Traders, Lexx, The Composers' Specials, Urgence, Marguerite Volant, Lobby, 10-07 L'affaire Kafka, for example, are all series we were able to encourage and support when the first scenes were barely sketched.

During 1995-1996, the Cogeco Program Development Fund supported a record number of projects and at a record level of financing - 20 projects received $188,000.

In total, our Fund has bestowed over one-half million dollars to date on the development of quality Canadian dramatic series.

After four successful years of continued contribution, the Cogeco Program Development Fund has proven that its participation is an essential part of the development process and has contributed to the growth of the Canadian independent production industry.

In 1997 we will be celebrating our 5th anniversary and extend our best wishes for continued success of the Fund.

Henri Audet
President