Post Production Companies Protection

Leighton Chenery

Published 21st January 2016

by Leighton Chenery Issue 109 - January 2016

The UK Post and VFX industry has some of the most skilled and creative talent in the World attracting work from all over the globe including many of the biggest movies from the US.

We all know, however, that problems are not a rarity and whilst nobody might be to blame, you may end up having to make a difficult commercial decision to preserve reputation or business relationships in the event that something goes wrong and you dont have the correct insurance cover in place.

Disks can get corrupted, tapes get chewed up and film can be over exposed or melt. If any of it results in additional expense to your client then blame is likely to be laid at your door. Post-Production indemnity is an option to cover your clients additional expenditure required to re-shoot or complete their production in the event of damage you cause to their media whilst working on it or having it in your possession.

Third party content protection

Whilst we would usually expect a production company to insure its content whilst it undergoes the post-production process we all know that many dont and this could place you in a very difficult position referring to terms of business and contracts for the job to negotiate culpability and financial responsibility to rectify the situation going forward. But, for those who work on third party content there is now the ability to insure it if it is damaged or stolen from you and you need to indemnify your client for the additional costs required to complete the production.

If the production company has insured their content correctly then the claim would rightly fall under their policy. So again, this is something that should be checked prior to starting the job and at the same stage as agreeing the contract.

Many of your clients may insist that you take out Errors and Omissions/Professional Indemnity insurance to cover negligence or failure to perform your professional duties. You will be handling your clients data and intellectual property and therefore will take on responsibilities not only when working on the third party content but also for storage, cloud based or otherwise, until completion. There are a number of considerations:

Confidentiality Who will get access to the content?

Security What protocols are in place to ensure only those supposed to access it can?

Reliability Can you be sure that the content you stored is what you think it is?

Availability Can it be accessed 24 hours a day 7 days a week and from where?

Data Deletion Procedures Who is responsible for deleting data and when?

Protect your reputation

Backing your own procedures with a comprehensive insurance solution would seem prudent to guarantee that your clients content is delivered without you being out of pocket should the worst happen. Cyber Liability, to cover damage or loss of information from IT systems or networks, can be essential when faced with potential reputational damage. These generally fall into two categories - First and Third Party risks.

First Party Cover (your own business assets):

¢ Loss or damage to digital assets such as data or software programmes

¢ Business interruption from network downtime

¢ Cyber extortion where third parties threaten to damage or release data if money is not paid to them

¢ Customer notification expenses when there is a legal or regulatory requirement to notify them of a security or privacy breach

¢ Reputational damage arising from a breach of data that results in loss of intellectual property or customers

¢ Theft of money or digital assets through theft of equipment or electronic theft

Third Party Cover (the assets of others):

¢ Security and privacy breaches, and the investigation, defence costs and civil damages associated with them

¢ Multi-media liability, to cover investigation, defence costs and civil damages arising from defamation, breach of privacy or negligence in publication in electronic or print media

¢ Loss of third party data, including payment of compensation to customers for denial of access, and failure of software or systems

Insurance brokers should watch your back, protect your people, assets and reputation by understanding your business. Leighton Chenery from Sutton Winson is a Broadcast & Media insurance broker specialist that can be contacted on leighton.chenery@swib.co.uk or 07976 327 407.

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