Media business, or marketing and communications business as it is sometimes known, used to be treated as miscellaneous business until it was realised that the product would only rarely, if ever, be of any use. Wonderful news for the insurers but, as you would expect, the media professionals soon cottoned on and stopped buying the cover.

Most PI policies require that a third party claim be made for a loss, which for the media industry would almost always be financial loss, arising as a result of the neglect, error or omission of the insured. In reality, media professionals will normally be in a position to fix the problem before their client ever finds out about the problem. Alternatively, they might waive an outstanding bill or issue credit notes so as to preserve commercial relations with their clients. The end result is no third party claim for damages and therefore, under most wordings, no valid professional indemnity claim.

For this reason, it is essential that media clients are not treated as miscellaneous risks and that a suitable media wording is offered, which gives rectification and irrecoverable fees cover. These heads of cover are often referred to as 'first party' cover and require specialist claims attention. There are not many insurers who give the cover and some that do, cannot give the claims service required, as immediate decisions are required and there is often insufficient time to get the details in writing.

What do Insurers look for?
As with miscellaneous business, the insured may not be qualified in the formal sense at all. So, sight of a CV is a normal requirement unless the insured has been trading for a while.

A media proposal form asks for a detailed split of business. Some activities are more hazardous than others. Here are some examples:

Production of advertisements
An advert involved a song which sounded like it was sung by someone with a stammer. The ad agency was warned by the IBA that it was close to the mark. Once finalised, the IBA decided that not enough was done to adapt the song. The client refused to pay the agency. Cost to insurers: £140,000

Depends on the medium used for broadcasting the advert. Due to potential mass exposure and production costs, TV and commercial film work is deemed higher risk than radio and press, etc.

A proposal form is available in Adobe Acrobat format by clicking the links below.

You will need Acrobat reader to view PDF files. Please visit the Adobe website where you can download it for free.