£500m scheme announced for productions struggling to secure insurance for Covid-related costs
£500m scheme announced for productions struggling to secure insurance for Covid-related costs
Great news for the film and TV industry as the Government announces new £500 million scheme to kickstart film and television productions struggling to secure insurance for Covid-related costs.
The new UK-wide £500 million Film and TV Production Restart Scheme will help TV and film productions across the country that have been halted or delayed by a lack of insurance to get back up and running.
It will fill the gap left by the lack of available insurance and cover coronavirus-related losses for cast member and crew illnesses and filming delays or disruptions caused by the ongoing battle against the virus.
The important information to note is:
The funding will be available to all productions made by companies where at least half of the production budget is spent in the UK
The Film & TV Production Restart Scheme will be available to compensate productions after they have restarted, and only where costs are then incurred due to delays or abandonment as a result of Coronavirus.
It will be possible to back date any future claims for eligible losses to today’s date.
The intention is that eligible productions will receive compensation for costs caused by coronavirus delays up to a value of 20% of the production budget, with abandonment of productions due to coronavirus to be covered up to 70% of the production budget, upon agreement with the Government that abandonment was necessary.
There will be a total cap on claims per production of £5m, and productions will need to pay an appropriate excess when seeking to claim under the scheme, as well as an appropriate fee when joining the scheme.
Productions will need to provide evidence that they cannot return to work because of a lack of insurance.
More details on the eligibility will be released in the coming weeks.