The United Kingdom is known globally for its iconic commercials, hit TV shows and successful feature films. It’s the second largest exporter of TV shows and the fourth largest exporter of feature films in the World.
Film and television production is big business and the creative industries as a whole contribute about £125 billion in gross value added to the UK economy, according to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Filming commercials, TV series and feature films involves numerous moving parts and no one shoot is ever the same, whether the production is within a studio with one cast member talking to the camera or in multiple locations across the World with 500,000 cast members and numerous special effects. All productions are highly technical, often very expensive with budgets ranging from thousands of pounds to over £500 million. They are all time critical, due to committed airtime slots and release dates.
There are many events that can cause delays in filming and increase production costs, whether it be a full cancellation, abandonment, postponement, additional shooting days or overtime.
Some covers are unique such as non-appearance, illness or possible death of a celebrity or cast member, product or key props/equipment delayed in customs. Extra expense, a location venue shutdown due to a fire or flood, or theft or damage to equipment like cameras, props or sets. All of these can mean filming has to be halted temporarily or parts reshot, recovered or amended in post-production.
One of the major risks that our clients want to manage is something unexpected happening to a celebrity or cast member whose appearance is fundamental to a plotline. If the cast member is unable to make the planned filming schedule, that delay can result in significant costs.
Bespoke coverage
The specifics of every commercial, TV show, or feature film are unique. Not only are shoots time-critical, there are numerous risk considerations to be taken into account about the location, stunts or special effects required, the products, cast members, animals, action vehicles, boats and helicopters involved.
Insurance coverage for any production therefore, is bespoke to the commercial, TV show or feature film in question. We provide packages of cover that are tailored to the risks involved.
Underwriters can provide production indemnity coverage to cover the costs of overtime or additional shooting in instances where a cast member, celebrity or vital crew member, like a director or lighting camera person, is unable to attend filming because of illness or close family bereavement, for example.
Insurance coverage can also address the risks of death or disgrace of an insured celebrity or cast member where the event would be counter-promotional and necessitate a change in cast member or extra days filming.
We also offer coverage for animal mortality, whereby the death or illness of an animal results in vets bills or a replacement needing to be found.
The specifics of every TV show, commercial or film are unique.
Damage or theft
Underwriters can also provide all risks damage policies for production media, that cover risks like physical damage to a digital hard drive or negative requiring a reshoot or extra work in post production to recover or restore footage.
Coverage for production property can transfer some of the risks associated with accidental damage, fire or flood to equipment, for example, or malicious damage, theft or attempted theft of props, sets or wardrobe. We also provide policies to cover accidental damage to miscellaneous technical and camera equipment, action motor vehicles or objets d’art like jewellery, paintings or antiques.
Extra considerations
Our team has built up extensive knowledge of the Film, Television and Advertising production industry, with some having backgrounds in production and insurance broking. We recognise that some productions may face additional risks and we can offer clients access to non-standard coverages like Terrorism, Aviation, Marine and Crisis Response for example. We can also tap into the wider expertise across the organisation and help clients to find specialised coverages.
The UK Government last year identified the creative industries as one of eight ‘growth-driving’ sectors of its industrial strategy. Risk management and insurance coverage will play an important role in enabling the United Kingdom to continue to produce the high-quality Films, TV shows and Commercials for which it is known throughout the world.
