Despite heavy lobbying, the UK government has confirmed the closure of the £500M ($657M) Film & TV Production Restart Scheme at the end of this month.
The Culture Department (DCMS) 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 ($15.8M) in claims and registered more than 1,000 TV productions in 18 months including big-hitters such as Killing Eve, Peaky Blinders and Gangs Of London. It has already been extended three times but the government is now closing the majority of its Covid financial schemes.
UK broadcasters and indies have held a series of crisis meetings this week with the DCMS to try and extend it beyond April 30, revealed by Deadline Tuesday, which have not proved successful.
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 sure they have the cover they need to create high-quality content for viewers at home and abroad.”
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