Media Liability Insurance
If you act as a media business, publisher, advertising agency, social media agency, video or film producer, or provide any other media service, your business should consider media liability insurance.
What is Media Liability Insurance?
In creative industries such as media, there’s often scope for misinterpretation, meaning that breakdowns in communication, unconscious bias, and misuse of content can and do happen, which can lead to liability claims and issues that need to be resolved.
Media Liability Insurance is designed for businesses involved in creating, publishing or distributing content. Cover may include legal defence costs and liabilities arising from certain media-related claims, including allegations of defamation, infringement of intellectual property rights and breaches of privacy.
Media liability cover similar to professional indemnity (PI) insurance but they are not the same. Media Liability Insurance included covers that are only applicable to media companies, including publishers, broadcasters, producers, advertising, marketing and other media companies.
What does ?
Media Liability Insurance cover
Nowadays, most businesses are publishers of some sort, therefore anyone who posts content online, or uses a logo or branding, may consider media liability insurance:
Content creators – Bloggers, vloggers, video content creators, photographers, videographers, and editing services
Media businesses – Publishers, broadcasting businesses, advertising agencies, PR agencies, and multimedia businesses
Other businesses – Any business that has a website or social media presence, or uses a logo or branding
Professional Indemnity Insurance
Commonly referred to as PI insurance, this cover can help with the legal and compensation costs associated with claims alleging that a professional service has caused a client financial loss.
Employers’ Liability Insurance (EL insurance)
For most UK employers, Employers’ Liability Insurance is a legal requirement. It can help cover compensation and legal costs arising from claims made by employees who suffer a work-related injury or illness.
The minimum level of cover required by law is £5 million, although £10 million is commonly provided by insurers.
Cyber Insurance
A cyber insurance policy helps pay for financial losses they may incur in the event of a cyberattack or data breach. It can cover costs related to the remediation process, such as paying for the investigation, crisis communication, legal services, and refunds to customers.
Media Liability Insurance with Jensten Insurance Brokers
We have a dedicated team of experienced Technology, Media and Cyber brokers with the experience and skills to create an insurance programme that includes Media Liability Insurance for your business.
We have media insurance brokers who will take the time to talk with you to create a tailored policy for your business, covering Media Liability Insurance for your professional risks and activities, as well as arranging other business insurances to cover your business risks, including property insurance, cyber insurance, management liability and fleet insurance.
What’s Covered with Media Liability Insurance?
Media liability insurance is vitally important to help protect the businesses against both frivolous and justified claims for compensation. There are various types of media liability claims that can affect different industries, but here are a few examples of claims where the business could be liable:
Copyright infringement: A designer uses a design element from another brand or creator, the artist claims that you have stolen their design and looks to be compensated.
Intellectual Property Theft: Your business is accused of marketing a trademarked product without permission, breaching patent laws.
Incorrect marketing campaign complaint: You run a PPC (Pay per click) advertising campaign comparing your prices to your competitors. Your competitor claims the comparison is unfair and inaccurate and sues you.
Disgruntled employee – Publishes sensitive information about a client before leaving the company. The nature of the information meant the claimant was seeking damages for losses incurred since the publishing of information.
Liability insurance for media companies will offer protection against a wide range of contractual and tortious liability claims. The policy will typically be provided on a ‘civil liability’ basis which means the insuring clause will cover any third-party claims for damages in a civil court.
When speaking to our brokers about Liability Insurance, we may also advise an insurance programme that looks at (but is not limited to): Cyber Insurance Liability, Directors and Officers (D&O) Liability Insurance, Employers’ Liability Insurance, Public Liability Insurance, Property Insurance, and Contents Insurance.
Questions?
Ready to discuss insurance solutions tailored to your business? Contact us today to start a conversation. Let’s build a insurance roadmap that powers your growth and reflects your values.
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Media Liability Insurance FAQs
Media liability insurance is more important now than ever before, given the litigious environment, the implementation of digital technologies, the global reach of publications, and riskier strategies to grow the audience base.
Litigation – However careful we are, mistakes happen, and society is increasingly litigious and looking for opportunities to take advantage of. Claims for defamation, copyright infringement, invasion of privacy, and negligence are commonplace.
Geography – Digital content is effortlessly accessible, and widespread, with no geographical boundaries. Trends are emerging for riskier material with an emphasis on speed over accuracy.
High court awards – Providing content in today’s world is dangerous and open to potentially devastating claims that can destroy reputations and balance sheets.
Determining how much media liability coverage your company will need can be difficult. Several different factors should be considered, including the number and size of your contracts, where your clients are located, under which law and jurisdiction your contracts are, whether you are working with contentious materials, and whether the cover is a requirement of a contract.
Talk to our brokers about your needs.
Media liability coverage is a type of Errors and Omissions (E&O) liability insurance designed for publishers, and other media-related firms. It is not the same as a full Professional Indemnity Insurance policy though, so it is worth speaking to our team to discuss your requirements.
