Hamilton digital media company to receive ‘significant’ funding from Ottawa

A Hamilton digital media studio is set to receive funding from the federal government through a program to support creative projects with international potential.

Minister of Canadian Heritage Steven Guilbeault announced more than $2.7 million in funding for five Ontario companies - including Hamilton's Pipeline Studios - on Friday through its Creative Export Canada program.

The program is really aimed at exports," Guilbeault said in an interview with The Spectator. We are trying to help those companies, those businesses that have that have the potential to grow even more, and to help Canada shine on the international scene more so than we're already doing."

Pipeline, a Hamiltonbased animation studio that develops, produces and distributes awardwinning family content, is the largest digital media company in the region - and one of the largest in Canada.

The company will receive up to $840,000 in funding.

They're employing a lot of people and they're helping Canada take a place on the international scene," Guilbeault said. The world is the market when it comes to creative industries."

Pipeline Studios president Juan Lopez said the funding will have a huge impact" on their business.

It's pretty significant in the sense that they're investing now in our creative sectors," Lopez said. We're very excited about that."

The funding will be used to launch a marketing campaign for animated kids' show Doggyworld," which is scheduled to air in 2021 on Disney.

The funding will be geared towards creating promotional material to be used on interactive platforms, social platforms, the new streamers, as well as marketing campaigns in the industry-relevant trade shows," Lopez said.

Lopez said new projects rolled out as a result of the funding could employ as many as 40 people. Pipeline currently has a staff of about 200.

We're so focused on the production side of things we really want and we need to start monetizing and commercializing," he said. We're bringing a team specific to this industry."

Pipeline Studios moved to Hamilton from Toronto eight years ago, and Lopez said they are here to stay."

The region needs another powerhouse city," he said. We saw that Hamilton at that moment was going through that transition, and they were keen on investing in technology, innovation, the creative cluster."

Lopez said bigger cities like Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver tend to the get funding, and Hamilton still has work to do to grow its creative industry.

We need more talent and more programs, more infrastructure," he said. The type of funding the city needs to lobby for to attract our industry is important."

Kate McCullough is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator. Reach her via email: kmccullough@thespec.com