Black Watch Entertainment founder Meghan Duffy is in the market for coproduction partners looking to unlock Manitoba’s incredibly generous 65% tax credits, which come with very few strings attached and don’t even have to be filmed in the province.
Meghan Duffy launched Black Watch Entertainment in the Canadian province of Manitoba in 2010 producing unscripted programming in the true crime, food/culinary and political debate and talk show genres.
Duffy had a background in journalism as a reporter for TV news and radio which made true crime a natural fit. “We started the company to help build the television industry in Manitoba which hadn’t really happened pre-2010. We’ve grown a lot over the last few years, and I’m excited about the future because I know we have a lot to bring to the table for a lot of potential producing partners and networks,” she says.
Black Watch Entertainment founder Meghan Duffy
The majority of Black Watch’s work is with clients in the US and UK and although there are factors within the local market affecting that decision – “the Canadian market is small, they don’t have a lot of money, and they’re comfortable working in the cities they’re based such as Toronto and Vancouver, so we tend not to work directly with them until after the show is finished and then we do it as a sale after the fact” – there is one very obvious reason for that.
Manitoba has arguably the most generous TV Tax credits in the world.
The Manitoba Film & Video Production Tax Credit, which is administered by Manitoba Film & Music (MFM) provides two main programmes, the Cost-of-Salaries Tax Credit and the Cost-of-Production Tax Credit. Productions can apply for one or the other, not both.
The cost-of-salaries credit enables eligible productions to receive up to 65% back on eligible Manitoba labour. That starts with a base rate of 45%, calculated on eligible Manitoba labour expenditures, which can then be stacked with 5% bonus for coproducing with a local production company, a 10% frequent filming bonus (for shooting three projects within a two-year period) and a further 5% bonus for shooting outside of Winnipeg. These can additionally be stacked with the federal Canadian Film or Video Production Services Tax Credit (PSTC).
With the Cost-of-Production tax credit, projects can receive up to 38% on eligible Manitoba spend. This credit consists of a base rate of 30%, calculated on eligible Manitoba expenditures, which increases by 8% if a production partners with a local prodco. This tax credit can also be used in conjunction with the PSTC.
“I think in general, the television world is still being squeezed and still finding its way,” Duffy says. “I’m not sure if it will ever bounce back to what it was, and that’s okay. We just have to learn how to pivot, and that’s where we can come in and be very useful. Has the market shrunk in the US? For sure, but it’s also shrunk in the UK, in Australia, in South America, in Canada. It has shrunk everywhere. But for us, we are a great solution for a smaller budget, because of what we bring to the table.
“As far as our tax credits go, does it have to be Canadian content? No. Do I have to own 100% of it? No. Can I bring a lot of money to these budgets? 100%, absolutely. And we’re looking for partnerships in all different ways, whether it’s service production, whether it’s coproducing, we’re open to everything – we just want strategic partnerships that make sense for both parties.
“You can do the 38% all-spend tax credit, which typically doesn’t get used as much because it’s only 38% which sometimes isn’t as beneficial. The great thing about the tax credit in Manitoba is that you don’t need to declare which tax credit you’re going to use until you are done filming. For example, if you are building a giant set and you’re going to be spending a lot on wood and supplies and costs, sometimes the ‘all spend’ can work in your favour. I’ve only ever done it once, and that was because we built a western town. So that was a great example, although sadly it has been burnt down since.”
Obviously through pure numbers the 65% labour-based tax credit is the one that gets used most of the time.
“That is typically the one we use most because it’s going to be bringing anywhere from 35- to-50% of the budget to the table on any given show. Obviously, every show is a little bit different. Some might fall into the 40%, some might be 39%, some might be 45%, either way, we are bringing a big chunk of the budget to the table.”
On top of this there’s the benefit of working and paying in Canadian dollar rather than US, “effectively a 30% injection into your budget” at current exchange rates, and most of the productions are non-union.
The tax credit is designed to secure work and employment for Manitoba residents, so the production needn’t necessarily take place in the province. “If I have an LA-based production company call me and they’re filming a reality show in LA then if we partner on them, I can send my team there and we still get the tax credit even though it’s filmed in LA,” Duffy says. “I am the tax credit effectively, by attaching me and bringing my team in we can go anywhere in the world and claim the tax credit.
“You can take my crew to Istanbul, Prague, and as long as they’re getting paid by me in Canadian dollars you can get the tax credit because that money is coming back in taxes, that money is coming back in knowledge and education and into the arts, which Canada really supports. It’s something people should consider – instead of bringing a crew from New York call me, bring a crew from Manitoba, take them to your shoot, and you can get a way better tax credit.”
True crime series Finally Caught has wracked up six seasons totalling 86 episodes filmed all round the globe using exactly this system. One of the conditions, however, is that Canadian audiences do have to access to the content within he first two years, be that through a standard distribution sale to the CBC, Bell Media etc or via YouTube, Twitter and other platforms.
Black Watch’s three-year plan moving forwards is to push more into the scripted space which also has access to the credits.
“One of my major goals for 2026 with Black Watch is to get a long-running scripted series going for the community,” Duffy says. “We have amazing studio space here that isn’t being utilised enough, amazing crews that aren’t working enough, and I would like something to feed the community during the long winter months. It could be a comedy, or I’d really love to do a police procedural it’s something I think the province could pull off really well.
“Winnipeg has a very interesting downtown, where it’s cobblestone streets, brick everywhere. We’ve have passed as Berlin, we’ve passed as New York, we’ve passed as France. Very interesting architectural based buildings that have amazing history. And if we need a New York skyline, we can send a second unit to get that or get some stock footage. We pulled off Chicago for I Have to Kill My Neighbour, which comes out later this year.
“It’s never impossible.”
