Despite heavy lobbying, the UK government has confirmed the closure of the £500M Film & TV Production Restart Scheme at the end of this month.
The Culture Department said in the last few minutes that insurance trade bodies will work with commercial firms to provide cover to the UK’s booming screen industries as the successful scheme, which was responsible for ending the production hiatus in summer 2020, comes to an end. One insider with knowledge of the situation, however, said only one or two brokers are likely to provide the necessary cover and producers are already concerned they may have to stop the cameras rolling.
The scheme has paid out £12M in claims and registered more than 1,000 TV productions in 18 months including big-hitters such asIt has already been extended three times but the government is now closing the majority of itsUK broadcasters and indies have held a series of crisis meetings this week with the DCMS to try and extend it beyond April 30,Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries said: “As we learn to live with Covid, it is great to see the industry working with production companies to make...