Media Insurance for your business
According to a Deloitte report, the Media and Entertainment sector generated £96 billion in the UK in 2017. This dynamic, exciting industry rewards businesses that are agile, fluid and always ready to embrace innovation. For most media liability insurance providers, however, it can be difficult to keep up with the pace of change and the different forms of risk that emerge as a result.
For all those reasons, it pays to consult a specialist in media liability insurance, such as Stanmore Insurance Brokers.
We have many years’ experience in providing media liability insurance coverage, so we know all about the unique requirements of the industry and understand the varied covers that your business needs – many of which may not be available in an off-the-shelf product.
That means we are able to offer you a bespoke package of insurance tailored to your needs, in exactly the same way you create bespoke, individual work to satisfy your audience.
Before that can happen, you need to think about your insurance requirements in as much detail as possible, so here are some of the issues we advise our clients to consider when planning their essential media professional liability insurance.
Be as clear as you can about the nature of your business
‘Media’, ‘marketing’ and ‘entertainment’ are extremely broad terms covering a wide range of activities, including film production, social media, graphic design and brand management to name but a few.
Make sure you list everything your business does clearly, so insurance providers know the kind of work you undertake. That way, you avoid your media liability cover being loaded to include high-risk services, such as investigative reporting, that you may not offer.
More importantly, you do not want to be undertaking work that is not listed in your business description as this may invalidate your insurance and put your entire business at risk.
Think about the ‘What-Ifs?’
Reputation is everything in today’s world and as a member of the Media and Entertainments’ community, you’re probably more than used to managing and protecting the good name of your clients, rather than yourself.
If the spotlight fell on you, however, and something were to threaten the reputation of your business, how would you cope?
For instance, what if you are served with a breach of copyright or an image license suit? The increasing speed and fluidity with which images and information are shared online nowadays makes it harder and harder to trace their original owners. So even with the best intentions, it’s easy to accidentally infringe Intellectual Property rules and find yourself facing a sizeable bill for costs and damages.
Or, what if an omission or error on your website, blog or social media feed opens you up to accusations of libel? Without the right level of media liability insurance for authors, you could be tied up in an expensive court battle for months, or even years.
What is an appropriate level of media liability insurance cover?
There is no insurance standard for a recommended level of media liability cover. A good deal of the final decision rest on your individual attitude to risk but make sure you fully understand your risks so an informative decision can be made.
A look at past cases, however, in which mistakes that could be seen as subjective have still resulted in crippling damages awards, should tell you never to underestimate the danger.
Fortunately, it’s not a decision you have to take on your own. We are a highly experienced assessor of risk for all types of media professional liability insurance. We offer informed guidance to help you understand the risks specific to your business. Our approach is to provide you with a menu of choice, whereby you select the specific covers and protections your individual business needs (with advice and assistance from our experts of course.)
The result is a truly bespoke package of cover, reflecting your appetite to risk and the specifics of your business model.
Don’t forget the normal business insurance housekeeping
With our years of experience and insight, we are the perfect partners for your media liability insurance cover. We are also experts in other less glamorous, but equally important, areas of business insurance.
These include commercial premises and equipment cover; policies to protect against flood, fire, and other disasters; cover for key decision makers; and public liability insurance in case of injury to staff and visitors to your office or site.
Whatever branch of media and entertainment you work in, we’ll make it our business to know what’s happening in yours.
In fact, we make a point of staying in close contact with all our customers, because it’s only by keeping up to speed with the latest developments in their world that we can be sure we’re providing them with the very best cover from ours.
