Take Cover: The changing landscape of insurance
If these “unprecedented times” have proved anything, it’s that a robust insurance plan can be the difference between survival and extinction for many in the live music business. And while the industry is slowly but surely beginning to resemble its former self, the scars of the pandemic run deep.
“We had huge claims at the start of the pandemic, which led to a lot of change within the underwriting market,” says Tim Thornhill of specialist brokers Tysers Insurance. “Some insurers increased their rates, and many stepped out and no longer wanted to provide cover for any type of event cancellation or non-appearance insurance at all. We’ve seen that ongoing since live music has returned.”
Indeed, salvation came at a cost: insurers globally reportedly lost more than £8bn in the first year of Covid-19 – £2.6bn of which was incurred by Lloyds of London alone. A number of stopgap government schemes, meanwhile, were introduced around the globe in a bid to get the battered touring scene back on its feet, to varying degrees of success.
As a result, 2023’s new normal is that insurance firms are still currently unwilling to insure against coronavirus.
“We had huge claims at the start of the pandemic, which led to a lot of change within the underwriting market”
“We have seen more enquiries than ever,” says Steven Howell of Media & Music Insurance Brokers (MIB). “Some contingency underwriters have closed for business following large losses, some new markets have entered the space, and all underwriters have amended the policy wordings to exclude Covid and other communicable diseases.”
Furthermore, Howell argues it is no longer a question of how many insurers will offer cover but more of how much cover they will offer.
“Pre-pandemic, many underwriters were happy to take the whole risk or a major percentage of the risk for a large festival or tour, they now wish to limit their exposure for any one event by taking a smaller percentage of the risk,” he continues. “This means we need to source two, three, or four more markets to cover the same event as underwriters seek to spread their risk.”
“Due to losses in the billions, the landscape has changed,” says Charlie Connell, executive director of entertainment for international insurance group Howden. “Insurers are less willing to take on such high levels of exposure and so the capacity for larger events and tours has diminished greatly.
“The breadth of cover has also decreased with insurers extremely concerned of another systemic event causing great losses in the market, which in turn could affect people’s jobs, and even to the point where music insurance being available at all could be in jeopardy.”
“Due to losses in the billions, the landscape has changed”
In Germany, Christian Raith, managing director at erpam GmbH, says, “From our point of view, there are currently few challenges in getting risks covered in the market. Despite the large losses caused by the pandemic, there is sufficient capacity in the German market. Of course, there is still the exclusion of pandemics or Covid, but I think every event organiser understands that.”
Martin Goebbels of Miller Insurance suggests rising premiums could tempt some companies back into the market. However, he points out that prices were already on the increase pre-2020 since “losses on cancellation insurance had been huge for a number of years.”
“Prices are still less than probably 20 years ago and an awful lot less than 10 or 15 years before that, so they’re not at an all-time high,” he says. “But obviously they are nudging back up because of a number of factors, not principally Covid – the weather situation, globally, is having quite an impact on insurers. And not just bad weather but actually excessively hot weather in recent times.”
“It’s certainly tougher than it was three years ago, mainly due to the limited [number] of insurers. We hope some come back in, but they’ll only come back in if the price is right.”
“The weather situation, globally, is having quite an impact on insurers”
Raith comments, “We are already noticing that the market is very soft again and we have been able to give premiums to customers in isolated cases that are not far from the old premiums. This is due to the large capacity, of course, but also to the fact that we have never had so many insurers on the market in over 30 years as we do today. But many big players are also getting on a bit, so premiums are a little higher there, but that remains understandable.”
Elsewhere in Germany, independent insurance broker vR&S has specialised teams who consult promoters, artists, and venues around the globe in terms of insurance and risk management.
“In 2020, the insurers paid out a huge [number] of claims on policies where Covid was deemed to be insured, so as everyone can imagine, the whole market was very negative in terms of premium income related to the losses paid out,” says the Hamburg-headquartered firm’s CEO Johannes v. Rauchhaupt.
“On the other hand, only a [small] number of risks were placed during this time, so insurers had nearly zero income. Generally speaking, after the pandemic, insurers had to gain more income from their business, so they were forced to generally increase rates.”
“There have been two major changes since Covid: one is increased premium level, the second is less capacity. Insurers are more willing to underwrite vanilla risks than the shows [that] tend to come with a higher risk.”
“There have been two major changes since Covid: one is increased premium level, the second is less capacity”
Nevertheless, vR&S live entertainment broker Julian Wagner predicts that – as has been seen with terrorism cover in the past – stances on providing insurance for Covid will soften over time.
“After the pandemic outbreak, insurers reacted very quickly to the situation and revised the wordings or the terms and conditions – not only the exclusion for pandemics but also for cyber risks or similar avoidable major loss risks,” says Wagner. “We saw this after 9/11 as well. Terrorism was a risk that was considered to be ‘never insurable again.’ But there, too, after a reasonable period of time, insurers rowed back.”
“At the beginning of the pandemic, everyone was very afraid of the situation, and now we see on the market that the first insurers are slowly taking over attempts to insure corona risks again. In the future – and I am sure of this – Corona risks [will be able to] be insured normally, perhaps with a surcharge.”
“In the future – and I am sure of this – Corona risks will be insured normally”
As is well documented, the post-pandemic return to touring has been blighted by a slew of tour cancellations for one reason or another.
“Anything can happen to a tour,” reflects Tysers’ Thornhill. “They can be cancelled because of illness to the artist, adverse weather, strikes, [which are] captured within all risk policies, with exclusions for things like cyber and communicable disease.”
Howden’s Connell notes that the business has experienced “sizeable losses in the non-appearance and cancellation space” due to artist illness or adverse weather, which he says highlights “the validity of the insurance products available beyond Covid.”
Miller’s Goebbels believes the rise in cancellations has acted as a further deterrent for insurers getting back into live music.
“They don’t see it as an attractive proposition,” he contends. “Long gone are the days where insurers saw the music business as glittery fun; they are a business like everybody else, and they’ve got to make profits. If there’s suddenly an increase in show cancellations for whatever reason, they have to look at it very carefully.”
“Long gone are the days where insurers saw the music business as glittery fun”
“In some cases, insurers are applying deductibles to tours, a one-show deductible would mean that in the event of an artist missing one show there would be no cover,” reports MIB’s Howell. “In the event they miss two or more shows, then the claim on the policy would be from the second missed show onwards. In all cases, insurers are asking for more information upfront in regard to previous cancellations, illnesses, and pre-existing conditions.”
Additional complications arise from the age of some of the artists hitting the road, particularly those in the autumn of their career.
“Many artists are still touring into their 70s and even 80s these days, and that’s a tricky one for insurers,” says Goebbels. “When you say, ‘I’ve got a band of 75 year olds going on a world tour for nine months,’ insurers are going to want to know an awful lot of medical information. Sometimes, the band push back and say, ‘It’s confidential,’ and insurers’ attitude is, ‘If you don’t want to tell us, then you can’t expect us to insure it.’”
“Not only age increases the likelihood of a claim, we have [also] seen many cancellations [that] are caused by mental illnesses in the last year,” offers Rauchhaupt. “Moreover, climate change obviously leads to more unforeseeable weather conditions across the world. Adverse weather remains the biggest risk for outdoor events.”
“Not only age increases the likelihood of a claim, we have [also] seen many cancellations [that] are caused by mental illnesses”
Rauchhaupt advises that it’s worth having a good broker by your side to make sure the risks you want to insure against are fully covered in the policy being taken out. “You wouldn’t go to a judge without a lawyer or wouldn’t pay your taxes without a good consultant – and the same applies to insurance.” he insists.
“We’d always encourage them to speak to us as early as possible, particularly on things like rates,” says Thornhill. “If you get in there early, then often it can be cheap. Also, it’s possible to declare your shows on a minimum deposit basis. Any adjustments can be made for activity later in the year.”
“It saves the time and hassle of dealing with financial administration when their time is better spent in the run up to an event in delivering the best service to the participants and the gig-goers. If they get the admin done early, it could be financially beneficial, but it’s certainly going to be time beneficial.”
“Speak to a specialist broker as early as possible to allow time to approach a number of markets and obtain the best terms,” concurs Connell. “Look at the option of an annual policy rather than one-off event policies, as this may be more economical. Check the contracts and only insure for the risks that you are exposed to. For instance, if your contract says that you do not pay the artist if they fail to perform, then you may not need to include the artist’s guarantee in your insured costs.”
“You wouldn’t go to a judge without a lawyer or wouldn’t pay your taxes without a good consultant – and the same applies to insurance”
Of all the misconceptions about the insurance industry, there is one issue in particular that everyone is keen to set straight.
“One general thing I’ve heard a lot in the last years is that insurers aren’t paying out when it comes to the moment where they need to,” stresses Rauchhaupt. “I think Covid showed that this is not true. We have handled more than 1,000 cancellations in 2020, and none of them went to court.”
“Most insurers are happy to pay claims as they have to prove to the regulators that the policies they provide are fit for purpose,” says Howell. “If the policies provided never paid out, then they would get in trouble with the regulators and ultimately face fines or closure. At the same time, they also have to meet internal checks to ensure that the policy triggers and the quantum claimed is correct, and this is not always straightforward and will involve a third-party loss adjuster.”
At erpam, MD Raith notes, “We sometimes see that brokers, due to their networking with large corporations such as Live Nation, DEAG, Eventim, etc., have problems in making favourable offers. After all, the broker’s main client should feel that he is getting the best premiums.”
“But, especially in framework agreements, all eventualities have to be priced in, and thus these are often worse premiums, but also conditions. Fortunately, we are independent of these groups and can therefore agree on an individual premium with each client. This sometimes also has a positive effect on the conditions.”
“The broker’s main client should feel that he is getting the best premiums”
“The product is still extremely reliable and caters for a wide range of risks that are taken when putting on an event,” adds Connell. “Especially as brokers, we are here for the clients, and we work on behalf of the clients and not the insurers, so engaging with us will hopefully get the results that clients want from their insurance policy.”
In closing, Goebbels remarks that while the present climate is “not the rosiest,” the market should start to level out in the wake of completing a full year of post-Covid touring.
“It’s certainly not all bad,” he says. “Insurance is still there to help where it can, and it always has been. Just please make your broker part of your team at a very early stage. Don’t hold them at arm’s length and expect them to jump in and bail you out at the last minute.”
“Too many people leave it too late and are then shocked at the price or the policy terms. People look at the weather forecast and think, ‘Oh Christ, it’s not looking too good next week. I better get some insurance in place.’ Well, insurers also look at that weather forecast and say, ‘No, it doesn’t look good, so I’m not going to cover it.’”
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Under cover operations: Insuring live music in 2021
The fact that more than 350 delegates tuned in to participate in the specialist insurance session at this year’s ILMC underlines the live entertainment industry’s drive to return to normality, albeit with the reasonable caveat that their risks are insured should restrictions on mass gatherings be reintroduced due to Covid.
“Insurance in the past has always been a dirty word: nobody gave a damn and that was always reflected in the show contracts,” states Martin Goebbels of broker Miller Insurance. “Either nobody looked at, or perhaps understood the full implications of show contract cancellation and force majeure clauses until volcanic ash and a couple of instances after that – terrorism particularly.
“Obviously, Covid has just blown everything out of the water and people are suddenly realising that insurance can be important. But insurance runs in line with contract terms so it is vital to get both in sync.”
The business, however, has never been trickier. Insurers globally lost more than £8 billion (€9.3bn) in the past year because of the pandemic – £2.6bn (€3bn) of which was incurred by Lloyds of London alone.
“41% of Covid losses last year were as a result of event cancellation”
Understandably, insurers are, therefore, reluctant to offer any future Covid cover, leaving event organisers high and dry when it comes to including the coronavirus as part of their event cancellation coverage.
In a number of markets, notably Austria, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Norway, the industry has been able to persuade government to set aside funds to provide an insurance stop-gap should events have to be cancelled because of a new wave of Covid cases, while trade bodies – and, indeed, the traditional insurance market – elsewhere around the world are lobbying authorities to create similar schemes that would allow the beleaguered live events business to get back on its feet.
Tim Thornhill of specialist brokers Tysers Insurance has played a lead role in the ongoing negotiations between the UK government and the country’s live music and event businesses.
He notes, “41% of Covid losses last year were as a result of event cancellation, so that is one of the key reasons that the commercial insurance market is not in a position at this moment and does not have the appetite to write Covid-related risks. That’s one of the critical reasons why we have been working alongside other brokers in the live music sector to ask UK government to provide a government-backed insurance solution.”
“Covid aside, over the past couple of years the contingency insurance market took some massive hits”
Tysers’ efforts have included employing professional lobbyists and PR firms, months of conversations with the Treasury and other government departments, and complex modelling developed with the live music sector, including umbrella trade organisation LIVE.
Goebbels explains that the landscape for live events coverage had already started thinning prior to the pandemic. “If you put Covid to one side, over the past couple of years the contingency insurance market took some massive hits,” he says.
“Certainly in the UK – which is generally recognised as the centre of the insurance industry – on the music contingency side and cancellation insurance side, there were about half a dozen insurers pulled out of writing that class of business prior to Covid, because their losses on adverse weather, illness and other reasons had increased in recent years.
“More insurers have now pulled out because of Covid. But there are glimmers of hope, as there are some new markets that have expressed an interest in coming in. [But] quite often in the past we’ve had people who want to get involved in what they see as a glamorous business, dip their toe in the market, find they have some losses, and then get twitchy and withdraw again.”
“The contingency market recovers well and they are already open for business”
That’s a dilemma underlined by Paul Twomey, director of contingency insurance at broker, Gallagher. “Some new companies have seen this as an opportunity to make money because rates are going up and exclusions are going onto the policies; there are definitely some chancers out there who can see this as a potential way to make a quick buck,” he warns. “But because nobody is buying, it’s very much up in the air as to whether these new players will stick around.”
Thankfully, the news isn’t all bleak. Edel Ryan, sports entertainment & media industry head of strategic business development UK&I for specialist brokers Marsh, observes that although a number of insurance companies have withdrawn from live entertainment cover, the expertise on the underwriting side has not been lost.
“While some key insurers have formally exited from the entertainment industry, those experts and teams have moved and turned up in new places,” Ryan tells IQ. “The contingency market recovers well and they are already open for business, providing terms where although the cover may have changed, the rates are kinder than we would have expected.”
The insurance industry’s losses amount to about 13 years worth of premiums
Long-term recovery
With the insurance industry’s losses amounting to about 13 years worth of premiums, EC3 broker James Davies sums up the dilemma that live events find themselves in: “Traditionally, the contingency market generates something in the region of between £500-600million [€580-696m] per year in premiums, so it’s going to take a very long time to recover that income,” he says.
Indeed, Twomey estimates it could take the insurance market an entire generation to claw back those sums. “If the insurers were to have a run with no other losses beginning today, they are telling us it would take 24 years to get back that money,” says Twomey.
Pragmatic in trying to encourage insurers to remain interested in the live music sector, Davies reveals why his company is in talks with government over a UK insurance scheme.
“One of the reasons we’re trying to structure something is to involve the insurance market so that they can still generate some income to recover, and they can underwrite some of the non-Covid risks that we need them to cover,” he says.
“With gov-backed insurance for costs aligning to the roadmap, the flow of money to the supply chain will unlock”
For his part, Tysers’ Thornhill observes, “Live music events and festivals are, understandably, unwilling to be the first to walk the plank and cancel their events in light of the unprecedented pent up demand and ticket sales following the announcement of the [UK] roadmap.”
Thornhill adds, “No festival wants to cancel, but might be forced to because of the result of the [UK’s Events Research Programme], safety concerns of organisers or a lack of confidence in the ability to pay suppliers in time and release deposits to the supply chain. With government-backed insurance for costs aligning to the roadmap, the flow of money to the supply chain will unlock, bringing many out of furlough to plan events in their industry.”
Government backing
On 16 March, Denmark became the latest nation where the government proactively stepped in to assist promoters and event organisers, when it created a DKK 500m (€67.2m) safety net for festivals and major events, allowing organisers to plan for this summer without the financial risk posed by a potential Covid outbreak.
The safety net will cover organisers of recurring events with at least 350 participants (such as music festivals, sports fixtures, conferences and markets), as well as events that were planned before 6 March 2020, but will not include new events created during the pandemic.
“One of the problems insurers have for insuring something like a pandemic is the global losses”
Denmark’s move mirrors similar schemes in Germany (which has announced a €2.5bn fund); Austria’s €300m ‘protective umbrella’; a similar €300m pot in the Netherlands; Belgium’s €60m festival cancellation fund; Norway’s €34m festival safety net; and Estonia’s €6m risk fund for large-scale events.
A government scheme is also under consideration in France, it is reported. Although some of the announced schemes have delayed their start dates, to varying degrees the government support provides event organisers with peace of mind in case the Covid-19 situation results in cancellation, postponement or significant changes to their event. In effect, governments are plugging a hole that the traditional insurance market is not prepared to cover, at least in the short-term.
That’s a stance that Goebbels fully understands. “One of the problems insurers have for insuring something like a pandemic is the global losses – they’ve got no cap on how much they can lose, whereas on a regular tour it’s pretty much a finite amount. That’s why they are having an issue with it – they can’t just have a blank, open cheque book.”
EC3’s Davies agrees. “There are still policies in place that are covering Covid-related cancellation risks into the next three years, so insurers are still on risk for long-term policies. So that’s why the insurance industry has stepped back from underwriting Covid-related risks for cancellation,” he explains.
“Covid cover is actually available for individuals, but it only covers them”
Detailing some of the exclusions in the current insurance market, Davies states, “Covid cover on cancellation abandonment insurance for live events is not available. Forms of communicable disease insurance is available, while Covid cover is actually available for individuals, meaning you could buy individual Covid cover if you had a superstar who is going to attend, but it only covers them: it does not cover the cancellation of the event.”
In conjunction with Tysers, which has been leading efforts, EC3 has joined forces with some of the UK’s live entertainment trade associations in lobbying the Treasury and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) over the past nine months in the hope that they will fund a scheme similar to the one they have rolled out for film and TV production in the UK.
Crucial to that process, says Davies, is the collaboration of the insurance industry. “We feel that the insurers need to be engaged in order for them to create an element of premium income outside of Covid – in other words the bits that they can underwrite,” he says, noting that without any premiums more insurers will exit from the sector.
“We’re in discussions with gov about the details, but the aim is for it to cover costs across three specific areas”
Tysers’ Thornhill comments, “We’re in discussions with government about the details, but the aim is for it to cover the costs across three specific areas: a local authority shut down; the artists or crew not being able to turn up to allow the show to go ahead; and the third would be an enforced reduced capacity, so if, for example, the government limited maximum mass gatherings to 500 and 5,000 tickets had been sold, the policy would respond at that point.”
Film & TV compensation scheme
One company with invaluable experience in partnering with government is Marsh, which is administering the UK government’s Film and TV scheme.
Expressing her admiration for that scheme, Marsh’s Ryan tells IQ, “The DCMS and Treasury really did their homework with regards to engagement with the insurance industry – brokers and insurance companies – as well as engaging directly with the client sector, associations, broadcasters and independent production companies. They spoke to us because we have clients active in this space and it’s an area where we have expertise, as is live music, as is sports.”
“[DCMS and the Treasury] have proven that they listen and will find a way, if there is a way to do it”
She explains, “What we’ve done, which is a little bit different to how we would work with our clients, is that we’ve assembled a team who are not necessarily experts in this space but are experts in the intention, the purpose, the rules and the criteria of this scheme, and that’s what was important. We were also able to put plans in place should there be a tsunami of enquiries, which we were primed to expect.”
However, the Marsh team was not initially inundated with calls. “The applications in the beginning were slow, but they’ve picked up because of the extensions that have been put in place, which have made the application much more feasible for production schedules,” says Ryan.
Describing the scheme as a compensation scheme, rather than insurance, Ryan says, “For the industry it’s a first. It’s set the standard and I am not at all surprised that live music and live entertainment is looking toward that and appealing to the DCMS and Treasury to replicate it or extend it beyond its scope.
“The film scheme is far easier to underwrite because film sets by their very nature are enclosed environments”
“If the government were to do it, I think they have a model to be able to shape it very quickly. And what the DCMS and Treasury have also proven is that they are willing and able to work with industry. They’ve already extended the film and TV scheme four times, and they’ve extended some of its cover beyond the original intention to things like the over 70s. So they’ve proven that they listen and will find a way, if there is a way to do it.”
50-50 chance
While the UK government’s stop-gap for the film and TV sectors provides a glimmer of hope for the country’s live events business, brokers are at pains to stress that the industries operate to very different standards, with those IQ spoke to believing it is 50-50 as to whether government departments will establish a similar programme for concerts and festivals.
Goebbels observes, “The film scheme is far easier for the government to underwrite because film sets by their very nature are enclosed environments that don’t rely on the public or an audience. So for film it’s far clearer as they can put themselves into a bubble or isolated set situation and carry on their business. Any event reliant on an audience is a very different proposition.”
“We need everyone in the supply chain to be supported and [a government fund] would do that”
Davies believes that even if a government scheme is approved, it will still take some time to establish. “If the government gives a green light, we then have to work on the structure in order to put the indemnity scheme together and we’ve been advised that would take between six to eight weeks from the green light,” says Davies.
Thornhill is hopeful. “The government does understand, from the conversations that we have had, that there is a need, so we are hopeful that something will come out,” he says. “We need everyone in the supply chain to be supported and [a government fund] would do that.”
At Marsh, Ryan is also hopeful that the government could provide the live entertainment sector with the same kind of support it has extended to film and television production companies. And she sees a series of upcoming pilot shows as being crucial to persuading politicians.
“There seems to be a determination by the industry and the government to make this happen,” says Ryan.
“I think those [test] events will set the standard in regards to how things can be done safely”
“I believe there are test events planned, and I think those events will set the standard in regards to how things can be done safely. They will influence things like capacity and audience numbers. I also think the speed and success in the way the vaccinations are being rolled out is going to be a significant factor.”
Making a compelling case for state-sponsored help, Thornhill says, “The commercial insurance market does not have an incentive to put its neck and money on the line when there is so much insecurity around Covid. But the gov- ernment does have an incentive.
“If it put down a fund now, then it would only have £400m [€463m] of exposure, but that could generate £9bn [€10.4bn] in economic value added to the UK economy across the course of the year. So the government’s risk reward is much greater because it will be rewarded by companies not going out of business and economic activity in certain sectors.”
“Communicable disease and Covid are going to be at the forefront, and other areas coming into it now”
Backing up that assertion, Ryan says, “What I read recently from the [British Film Institute] was they believe that close to £1bn [€1.2bn] in production costs have happened because of this scheme, supporting over 25,000 jobs.”
The main difference between industries is obvious, but there are other factors at play according to Ryan. “Of course, film and TV is not reliant on a mass audience,” she says, “but prior to the fund being announced they had also proven that they were able to get back to work. However, the single barrier that was preventing other projects was insurance,” she adds, again drawing parallels with the situation in which events organisers find themselves.
Other concerns
Covid aside, the insurance market for live events has never been more complex. “It’s going to be a tough market, certainly for the next year or two,” warns Goebbels. “Communicable disease and Covid are going to be at the forefront, and other areas coming into it now are things like cyber insurance, where insurers can see potential global losses and they have to find a way to cap their losses as they go along.”
“Everyone is going to have to work out where their responsibility lies with the person they are contracting to”
Goebbels also notes with interest the way in which the industry has made fundamental changes in its operations. “Live Nation made a clear statement by announcing proposed changes to their show contracts: if the show happens, the artist gets paid; if the show doesn’t happen, for any reason, they don’t. That’s it. It’s very clear and skips all the grey areas from previous contract as to when a promoter must pay an artist or not.
“So the artist will then have to draw up their own deals with suppliers and the promoter in turn, whether that’s with venues or advertisers or sponsors or whatever else it may be. Everyone down the line is going to have to work out where their responsibility lies with the person they are contracting to. That’s going to be a lot of work and maybe needs some legal input somewhere down the line.”
Thornhill points out that it’s not just the contingency market that is seeing an increase in premiums – it’s many classes of business. “We’re going into a hard market now, which means that the premiums are going to be increasing across many of the insurance policies that those in the industry purchase,” he says.
“This is not a competitive market, so my message to clients is choose your broker well and talk to them early”
“There is a lot of change going on in the insurance market at the moment and we, as brokers, have got to be mindful of that and we have to make everyone who is buying from us aware of the changes that are happening.”
That’s a sentiment Marsh’s Ryan echoes. “This is not a competitive market, so my message to clients has not changed since day one: choose your broker well and talk to your broker early,” she advises.
“With our clients, we make sure they have a relationship with their market, as well as having it with us. We make sure the client is involved in making sure the underwriter has a very good impression of what the event is, rather than what they think it might be. Those are significant factors in how underwriters will rate it and price it. And while rates are going up you want to make sure the client has as much faith in their market as they do in their broker.”
One monumental change of tune amongst the insurance community is the way they are working with clients to refund premiums. Gallagher’s Twomey explains, “One of the biggest issues that clients are concerned about is getting the money back if Covid does shut things down. They know they cannot claim for it, but can they get their premiums back?”
“Our message to clients is buy early”
That flexibility is proving helpful. “Pretty much everyone in the contingency world has agreed to premium cancellation clauses that work in favour of the client,” says Ryan. However, she says clients remain “hesitant” for fear of exposing themselves to sunken costs, meaning she and her colleagues are bracing for a deluge of enquiries as events begin to announce a return.
She adds, “Because the pandemic was declared so early in the year in 2020, many festivals were able to avoid a lot of sunken costs. That is a positive, but many festivals also were not insured because of their practice of purchasing insurance closer to the event. So our message to clients is buy early. The price is the price and each day closer to your event doesn’t reduce the cost – the cost is always going to be the same. So you should make insurance one of your first to-do’s.”
The fact that brokers’ phones and email inboxes are becoming more active again signals that confidence is slowly returning to the live entertainment industry.
Twomey says, “We’re starting to be hopeful for the back end of 2021. We’re quoting on some US events, dependent on the state where the event is taking place because of the way they are doing things: Texas has opened up; Florida never seemed to close down in the first place.
“Covid has certainly opened people’s eyes to the benefit of insurance”
“European-wise, international touring may be a no-no for this year, whereas UK artists doing a UK tour or French acts touring in France may be feasible. Later on this year I think we’ll see some of those starting to come through and that’s the way it will run for this year.”
But Twomey believes the increase in prices may dissuade some promoters from hosting events until 2022. “Margins were quite tight anyway for promoters, and if insurance is the thing that tips the margin into the negative because the rates have increased, then that’s going to be an issue,” he says. “On the other hand, Covid has certainly opened people’s eyes to the benefit of insurance, because with billions paid out, a lot of clients have benefitted from policies, so I like to think it’s concentrated minds on things.”
As for other areas of concern, Goebbels suggests that with the Queen in her 94th year, the prospect of a period of national mourning is becoming more of a reality – not just in the UK but also around the world in Commonwealth nations.
“It’s a sad reality that’s never happened in our lifetimes so we don’t know the full impact, but when it happens everyone will be looking to be paid. But I try to point out it is excluded by all standard cancellation policies as they have an age limit. We don’t know for sure whether the USA would have national mourning for a serving president but Biden now also exceeds insurers’ age limit. These are matters that many clients don’t take note of but no doubt when it happens will expect insurance to pay.”
“The market has failed, so the government have to step up”
And, of course, Brexit has also created untold issues, with many insurers having to establish European offices to adhere to legal requirements.
“As and when touring starts, we’re going to run into issues with visas and travel, because it is a requirement of all insurance policies that all arrangements are made in advance,” says Twomey, regarding Brexit. “If we arrive at a situation where a UK band cannot enter Germany because they don’t have the correct visas, or whatever, then the insurance policy would not respond because it’s warranted that all arrangements are made in advance.”
At EC3, Davies concludes that the entire future of insuring live events is in the balance, unless governments intervene. “The market has failed, so the government have to step up and insure this element of the contingency insurance policy that is not covered at the moment. The future of both the contingency market and UK live events relies on this,” he says.
Read this feature in its original format in the digital edition of IQ 97:
This article forms part of IQ’s Covid-19 resource centre – a knowledge hub of essential guidance and updating resources for uncertain times.
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UK stars weigh in on ‘final countdown’ for insurance
UK superstars have joined the chorus of industry experts and trade associations calling on the UK government to commit to underwriting cancellation costs of events such as music festivals and tours, to enable the restart of the live entertainment sector from this summer.
Jools Holland, Depeche Mode, Johnny Marr, Sir Cliff Richard, Robert Plant, Roger Daltrey, Amy McDonald, The Chemical Brothers, Frank Turner and Judas Priest are among those who have weighed in on the ongoing petition for a government-backed insurance scheme, similar to those launched in Norway, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Belgium.
The industry’s call-to-action comes days before chancellor Rishi Sunak is set to unveil the Budget. Alongside a government-backed insurance pot, the industry is also urging the chancellor to grant extensions on the 5% VAT rate on ticket sales; employment support; and business rates relief for shuttered venues.
The industry deems event cancellation insurance the ‘last remaining barrier’ to planning events this summer after British prime minister Boris Johnson announced a ‘cautious’ reopening roadmap that could allow festivals to take place after 21 June, but says the window of opportunity for this summer ‘will slam shut very shortly’.
“With the cut-off point for many organisers at the end of the month, this really is the final countdown for many businesses”
Paul Reed, AIF CEO, says: “The prime minister has set out a roadmap and a ‘no earlier than’ date for festivals, and audiences have responded, demonstrating a huge appetite to be back in the fields this summer. But we need government interventions on insurance and VAT before the end of this month when festivals will need to decide whether they can commit to serious amounts of upfront capital.
“Now that we have a ‘no earlier than’ date, insurance is the last remaining barrier to planning. We know that government is aware of the insurance issue and AIF has provided evidence and data to support the case. Having injected huge consumer confidence, government should intervene at this stage and ensure that our culture-defining independent festivals can mobilise and plan for this summer. With the cut-off point for many organisers at the end of the month, this really is the final countdown for many businesses.”
AIF, whose members include Boomtown Fair, Shambala, Boardmasters, End of the Road and Bluedot, recently conducted a member survey in which 92.5% of respondents confirmed they cannot stage events without insurance and described insurance measures as ‘vital’ not optional.
“The window of opportunity for this summer will slam shut very shortly. The government needs to act now”
Tim Thornhill, director of Tysers Entertainment and Sport Division, is working closely with the live entertainment insurance industry and live music industry umbrella organisation Live, to urge the government to work with industry to find a solution.
Thornhill comments: “The government has successfully created a scheme that has enabled the film and television industries to get back to work. Now they need to do the same for the live events industry. But the window of opportunity for this summer will slam shut very shortly. The government needs to act now.
“The live events industry is a massive employer and a significant generator of economic activity. Music alone employs over 200,000 people, with music tourism contributing £4.7bn to the UK economy*. The new YouGov survey shows that demand is there – they will buy tickets and spend on accommodation, food and drink. The government can unlock this boost to the economy at no cost to themselves, just a commitment to help underwrite the cost of cancellations should they occur.”
“This cover will allow our business to function as soon as it is safe for us to do so”
Jools Holland comments: “The solution to this problem could be simple – and what’s more, it doesn’t involve the government paying out money now. Maybe not even in the future, unless Covid strikes again. All we need from the government is the commitment to help if necessary.”
Roger Daltrey CBE comments: “The music business and arts have been enormously affected by the Covid-19 virus, with the ongoing health issues plus the problems thrown up by the government’s essential decision to close our places of work. The government however needs to understand how our industry functions. Promoters, especially those with festivals, bands and any touring acts have enormous outlays before commencing a tour, so insurance for these costs is paramount.
“Insurance companies will no longer cover these costs for Covid-19, which will render much of our business unviable as no promoter can risk setting up an event or tour without this cover. All we ask of our government is to put in place an insurance policy that, in the event of this situation happening again, will cover these costs. As it may be 100 years to the next pandemic it is extremely unlikely that this will involve the government paying out any money, but this cover will allow our business to function as soon as it is safe for us to do so.”
“We have seen the impact on the many people who help make the live shows happen”
The Chemical Brothers comments: “Like many other people we have had to put a lot of work on hold in the last year, and we have seen the impact on the many people who help make the live shows happen. Thousands of jobs have already been lost across the UK live music industry, with many more at risk. The UK government has already provided a financially backed scheme for the film industry, which has allowed production to resume. All we ask is that the same approach be taken to help those in the live events industry, which needs the support too and provides so much to the UK economically as well as culturally.”
Sir Cliff Richard comments: “The live events industry has suffered hugely as a result of the pandemic and has been shut down for nearly a year. Venues, performers and crew have all been badly affected. People’s jobs and income have vanished almost overnight. OUR BUSINESS BRINGS INSPIRATION AND HAPPINESS INTO PEOPLE’S LIVES. WE CAN MAKE THEM SMILE WHEN THEY ARE SAD AND WE CAN HELP THEM SING WHEN THEY HAVE NOTHING TO SING ABOUT! We need the government to help us plan for when it is safe to resume OUR business.”
“The industry is facing near catastrophe without adequate government support”
Amy MacDonald comments: “When people attend a gig they buy a ticket, turn up and enjoy the show. What they don’t always understand is the months of preparation that went on behind the scenes to get to that particular point. Thousands of emails and phone calls, meetings, site visits and not to mention huge amounts of money spent to just get to a point where the tickets are on sale. Another important aspect of preparing for a show is the need to ensure the event but it’s now impossible to get any insurance to cover these shows.
“As we have seen from the recent cancellation of Glastonbury, the live industry cannot even plan to start up again because it is too much of a risk without any insurance. The live industry has been put on hold for nearly a year and with no date for a return and no chance to even plan a return, the industry is facing near catastrophe without adequate government support. Nobody wants to live in a world without live music.”
“Can the PM tell us why he won’t help an industry that contributes billions to the UK economy each year?”
Robert Plant comments: “We all desperately want the UK live industry back on its feet again, so we can enjoy our favourite bands or sports event. Yet without insurance to cover these events, these things can’t happen. So please, can the PM tell us why he won’t help an industry that contributes billions to the UK economy each year?
“We’re not asking for any money, just a commitment to help if Covid ever strikes again. We don’t want a hand-out, we just need a hand up.. to help us get back on the stage. I’ve spent 55 years performing in halls, clubs, theatres and concerts halls across the UK. Now we’re in unchartered waters, soon there will be nowhere left to play. So I’m lending my voice to this campaign in the hope that the government will see sense and lend support before many of our beloved music venues disappear forever.”
Harvey Goldsmith CBE, promoter, comments: “As promoters and producers of live concerts we cannot produce tours without insurance against Covid. We are the risk takers and often have to pay considerable sums upfront to be able to create the tour. If the government at any time decide it is unsafe to continue, or commence a tour, we must be able to take insurance to protect us, as any normal business would expect. If no insurance is available our business will collapse.”
“The single most powerful measure the government could take is to underwrite any losses from Covid-19 cancellations”
Philip McIntyre, promoter, comments: “I would like to support your campaign to have the government underwrite any losses suffered from Covid 19 cancellations whilst the pandemic is still prevalent. My company is in the top five of all live entertainment groups in the UK we are obviously keen to start operating again but we worry about uninsured risk. Now we have a plan to come out of lockdown the single most powerful measure the government could take is to underwrite any losses from Covid-19 cancellations after June this year.
“This would give the risk takers so much confidence they the live arts would return to normal by December this year. If there are claims they would more than likely be on a regional basis and not onerous and the business generated in town and city centres would more than cover them in my estimation the government would be in profit 12 months ahead of a no action situation.”
Frank Turner comments: “It cannot be exaggerated, the devastation caused in my industry by the pandemic. We’re doing what we can to hang on and plan for a better future. An insurance plan will help us survive and come back quicker, and it doesn’t involve the government paying out any extra money now (or possibly ever). It would make an enormous difference.”
“Every effort is made to reduce the costs of a cancelled concert including trying to reschedule a date”
Johnny Marr comments: “The solution to getting music back up safely is easy and it doesn’t involve the government committing money now. All we need from the government is the commitment to help if necessary with an insurance scheme backed by them, and that will get our crews and suppliers back working. The government would only have to pay out in the worst case.”
Barrie Marshall MBE, promoter, comments: “The tremendous work of the NHS and the vaccination programme means that live events can start soon, this gives us hope that we can begin to share those magical moments and wonderful concerts once again. However, we need the government to help us by providing financial backing in the form of an insurance fund. This is needed to cover the costs of an event if it must be cancelled as a result of a Covid outbreak. Every effort is made to reduce the costs of a cancelled concert including trying to reschedule a date in the future but there are some circumstances where this is not possible.”
“We help to get our industry back on track and to help restart live events in a safe, effective way once it’s possible to do so”
John Giddings, promoter, comments: “Our industry has been hit immeasurably over the past year and we need to get it back up and running again. The government has got to help!”
Judas Priest comments: “The world has been more or less brought to its knees because of Covid-19 in this past year. It has affected so many people and businesses in all walks of life in so many ways. Our industry, the entertainment industry (which is a multi-billion dollar business), is suffering massively. It isn’t just affecting us – a band who want to get back out on the road, performing to our fans around the world – but it is affecting mainly our crew (and all the other crews), the venues and their staff, cleaners, security, caterers, local crew, bus drivers, truck drivers, lighting and video personnel, stage set designers and stage set builders. The list is endless.
“We need help, for the venues to be able to put on shows and the artists to be able to perform we all need to get tour insurance that will cover Covid-19 so shows can go ahead. Now we have the vaccine things should be on the way up but we need your help urgently, please!”
Depeche Mode comments: “With the live music industry in the UK shut down for over a year, our crew, our fans, venues, and everyone else who makes shows possible has been badly affected. Jobs and income have vanished almost overnight, and fans and artists alike have been left wondering when live shows will be possible again. We need the government to help us get our industry back on track and to help restart live events in a safe, effective way once it’s possible to do so.”
Government-backed insurance funds will be explored at ILMC during Insurance: The Big Update, while lessons that can be learned from 2020’s lost festival summer will be discussed during Festival Forum: Reboot & Reset.
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All write now? Insuring events in the age of Covid
This summer’s events and festivals may have been largely wiped out due to the ongoing pandemic, but live event organisers are determined to return to some kind of normality.
With large-scale event bans due to lift before the winter, the live music industry is daring to plan for the future – but at what cost?
Organisers are still reeling from the economic impact of this year’s cancellations, and few are willing or able to risk shows without cancellation insurance in place for Covid-19. Even with government go-ahead for venues to reopen, without insurance, the industry is at a standstill.
So what might live event insurance look like over the next 12 months? Insurers from two of the biggest global markets, the UK and the US, tell IQ why a government-backed insurance fund is needed (but problematic), what’s causing many underwriters to quit offering cancellation insurance, and how policies may change in the months ahead.
When it comes to insurance for future live music events, there’s only one question on the industry’s lips: When will insurers provide cancellation cover that includes Covid-19?
The answer is, according to brokers in the UK and the US, not any time soon – if at all.
The problem, as Steven Howell from Media Insurance Brokers (MIB) in the UK explains, is that it’s impossible for underwriters to put a price on Covid-19 cover while we’re still in the midst of the pandemic.
“It’s a bit like asking us to insure your house while your house is still on fire; it’s too late. You can only assess what the damage is and what repairs are needed once the fire is out. And once that happens, underwriters can assess the likelihood of that house burning down again and work out what premiums to charge you to cover it,” he says.
“Asking an underwriter to take a view on the likelihood of whether the government will impose a local lockdown, forcing the cancellation of an event, is impossible because no one knows. No one is in control of the infection rate and no one is in control of the government.”
“You can only assess what the damage is and what repairs are needed once the fire is out”
However, it’s the authorities that the industry is turning to for support. When the UK government announced its £500 million scheme to kickstart film and television productions struggling to secure insurance for Covid-related costs, there was a question of whether the live music industry might receive the same.
The programme will support productions if future losses are incurred due to Covid and fill the gap left by the lack of available insurance and cover coronavirus-related disruptions, such as delays in filming caused by unwell staff.
A proposal is currently being worked on by entertainment and sports broker Tysers in partnership with the UK’s various industry associations, though no details have yet been released. One of the difficulties, as Martin Goebbels from Miller Insurance points out, is that live music events present an entirely different set of variables from that of TV and film productions.
“Productions are behind closed doors, in more contained environments, and generally can be far more easily controlled and contained. The problem for live music events is the audience and everything that comes with that, such as public transport and having large crowds in any restricted area, whether it be the actual venue or extra numbers arriving in a town,” he says.
So far, only one arena in the UK has risked staging events with the possibility that the government could enforce a local lockdown at any time, forcing the organisers to cancel.
Howell at MIB insured the UK’s only major summer concert series of 2020 at the country’s first socially distanced arena, Newcastle’s Virgin Money Unity Arena.
“Insurers might need to be prepared to cover certain losses not contemplated as part of coverage offered today”
While MIB couldn’t provide cancellation cover which includes a Covid-19 extension, it could provide public liability cover, in case anyone gets ill or contracts the virus at the event and tries to sue the event organiser.
“In order to ensure there was no exclusion for coronavirus added to the public liability policy we needed to review the organisers risk assessments and Covid-19 protocols to make sure they are adhering to latest advice and minimising risk of catching or spreading the disease,” says Howell.
The organisers have said that they were keeping “one eye on government legislation,” hoping there wouldn’t be any major changes or a local lockdown that would put the series into jeopardy.
So what are the possible solutions that would give event organisers the confidence to start planning for next year and committing costs?
One suggestion from Howell is to increase the tax on insurance premiums, in line with VAT, and reserve the excess for cancellation cover.
“Most people are used to paying 20% VAT. On insurance, you pay 12% so even if you increase it to 15 and siphoned off that 3%, it would create a pot of money through insurance that is available to bail out in case of cancellation.
“It’s similar to what the US did after 9/11 when they increased premiums and siphoned off a small percentage in case your business or event gets affected by terrorism,” says Howell.
“Once live events do come back, there will be an adjustment period for those who wish to put on the shows and those who wish to insure them”
Carol Thornhill from Epic Brokers in the US also cited the terrorism pot as a possible solution, but says in the current political climate she doesn’t necessarily see it happening.
“We do have some clients that are actually working in venues with proper social distancing protocols, in the hopes that the state stays open.
“A lot of states like Florida and Tennessee are a little bit more relaxed than others and so they’re really not shutting down promoters and events much at this point,” she says.
Any changes to insurance policy in the US is much further down the line, as underwriters have to go through a state filing process, which Tim Thornhill of UK-based Tysers says is more of a lengthy procedure.
Scott Carroll from Take1 Insurance in the US says he imagines adjustments to the Covid-related insurance cover would take into account factors such as the venue’s protocols for sanitisation; food service; public toilets; adherence to Centers for Disease Control guidelines; and duty of care.
“The insurers might need to be prepared to cover certain losses not contemplated as part of coverage offered today. Once live events do come back, there will be an adjustment period for those who wish to put on the shows and those who wish to insure them,” he says.
Another change coming in both the UK and the US is an increase in premiums. In the UK, that increase is down to lack of capacity in the insurance market and a higher demand, according to Howell.
“Travel insurance is likely to increase as well, which may have a small effect on future tour budgets”
“Lots of underwriters we used have quit,” says Howell. “They’ve said, ‘we’ve lost so much money in this first wave of cancellations that we’re not going to write contingency or cancellation for the foreseeable future,’ and closed their books.”
This means that the remaining underwriters will be looking to claw back some premium by charging higher rates.
Tysers has been more fortunate with business during Covid-19 and was able to pay out on cover in many instances, says Thornhill.
“In relation to non-appearance policies, our wording, drafted in the time of [predecessor companies] Robertson Taylor and later Integro allowed most of our clients the opportunity to successfully lodge claims,” he explains.
“It was significantly different to the standard Lloyd’s wording used by others, as our communicable disease [CD] exclusion was limited to a number of named diseases. Covid-19 was not one of those and consequently we were able to confirm fairly quickly that coverage operated as opposed to the blanket CD exclusion offered elsewhere.”
Goebbels points out that Covid’s effect on the insurance industry will have other knock-on effects in other ways too.
“Travel insurance is likely to increase as well, due to massive losses in recent months, but at present we do not know by how much, as touring is not happening,” he says. “That may have a small effect on future tour budgets, but it is too early to say.”
With insurance a key consideration for festival season 2021, the topic will be discussed in more depth at next week’s Interactive Festival Forum, with Thornhill and Howell among the experts speaking as part of the Insurance & Covid-19 workshop.
Register for iFF 2021 here.
This article forms part of IQ’s Covid-19 resource centre – a knowledge hub of essential guidance and updating resources for uncertain times.
Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.
Insuring the unknown
Conversations surrounding insurance in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak have been complicated, simply because these are unprecedented times.
If you look at any industry and economic decision, when you are dealing with something that has not been dealt with in a generation, there is always going to be complexity. Where there is no practical or legal precedent, there will be a delay in decision-making capability and a lack of clarity. This is all compounded by the quickly evolving nature of the pandemic.
If event organisers purchased cancellation insurance with a blanket communicable disease extension, they are likely to be insured.
However, there are some instances where there could be exclusions specific to a type of communicable disease. The detail is in the policy wording and any extensions that are noted within the documentation. It is hard to give a specific example as not all policies are the same.
When venues are ordered to shut down by the government it can alter the insurance claim, but again, this will depend on the policy. In some cases, there can be a trigger for a policy to react if the government or a local authority stops an event happening by mandating that a venue shuts down. This is different to a venue choosing not to put an event on, in which case, it is less likely that the cancellation would be insured.
However, if the proximate cause is still excluded (communicable disease or terrorism, for example), then the government enforcing a shutdown does not change the terms of the policy, and a claim would not be covered.
We can look back on government and local authority decisions with the benefit of hindsight and most of us reading this will have different opinions even with that. In the UK, from the evidence of the government, as of the time of writing, social distancing and the shutdown of venues has helped to save lives. Whether or not the timing of that was perfect in terms of the loss of life or economic impact will never be known, as is the case with all future governmental decisions.
When you are dealing with something that has not been dealt with in a generation, there is always going to be complexity
Some organisers are also choosing to postpone rather than cancel events. Dependent on the insurance contract, postponing an event is likely to help with the insurer’s losses, but it may also help promoters.
It is likely that live music, sports and events are going to see an increase in insurance premiums after this. This class of insurance has seen catastrophic losses this year; last year saw some big losses, too. These increases will be coupled with a change in the wordings, and work is happening in the background by us, our clients and our insurer capacity to make sure that we can get the best balance possible in what is an extremely difficult time for live events.
We have set up teams specifically to look at the future and we are looking forward for our speculation to turn to plans and then reality, to help the industry get moving again and, most importantly, our attendees experiencing the world’s great talent live.
We are going to see a change in insurance policies. It has already happened. What we are looking to do is make sure that the changes ensure that our promoters, artists and all others in the value chain are protected in most eventualities. It is tough now to know what this will look like in two months, so forecasting six months is impossible. We just do not know the full impact.
For now, we would advise event organisers to be prudent and look at contracts carefully, and when taking an insurance policy out for event cancellation, talk to your broker and study it in detail.
Brokers are here to help and we work on the behalf of our clients, so please study the facts.
Tim Thornhill led the ‘Cancellation insurance’ workshop, along with Tysers colleague Gary Brooks, at this year’s International Live Music Conference.
Tim Thornhill is director of sales, entertainment and sport at Tysers insurance brokers.
ILMC 32: Workshop: Cancellation insurance
Until a few weeks ago mention of corona is likely to have prompted thoughts of a Mexican cooking lager or the Italo-house crossover hit, ‘Rhythm of Night’. And when Gary Brooks and Tim Thornhill from Tysers (the broker formerly known as Integro) first agreed to host a talk about insurance cancellation, they could never have anticipated that a seafood market in China would make it standing room-only at their workshop.
As delegates continued to pour into the room, they began by running through what can be insured: cancellation, abandonment, postponement, interruption, curtailment, relocation and additional costs.
Unfortunately, when it comes to many things which might cause these – adverse weather, war, terrorism, political risk, non-appearance of speakers/artist, national mourning and communicable diseases – there is a hefty premium as they are classed as exclusions. And that’s assuming that “buy back” is possible.
According to Tim Thornhill, the likelihood of getting coverage for cancellation policies now due to coronavirus is very unlikely.. And while emphasising that he did not want to appear flippant, Gary Brooks summed up the chances of currently getting cancellation insurance due to corona.
“Someone described it to me like your car being on fire and you ringing up to insure it”
“Someone described it to me like your car being on fire and you ringing up to insure it,” he said.
Although this will provide little comfort for anyone due to host a festival or event – unless they bought additional coverage for communicable diseases before February – the workshop was useful in clearing up other questions.
Promoters worried about the possibility of artists pulling out are advised to opt for an assured (rather than an assured/insured) policy, although this comes at a higher premium, in particular if the act in question has got form for capricious cancelling. And the precautious consumer can be offered additional insurance (estimated at 2.5–6% of ticket prices) to get a refund in the event of illness.
The session ended with Thornhill and Brooks explaining that they were there to guide clients on getting the best insurance for their needs. “We’re on your side,” they explained.
Free drinks followed, with the bill for catering for the crowd likely to have been a lot higher than anticipated. Tempting as it was, nobody inquired which brand of lager was being served.
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Cover Story: the cost of event cancellations
From Kanye West to Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Cardi B and a host of festivals, the tail end of the 2010s has seen no shortage of big-name cancellations and postponements – with illness, civil disorder and, especially, severe weather all doing their part to torpedo major live music events in recent years.
All touring productions are team efforts, and when it becomes clear a show won’t go ahead, the first person to receive a call is a stakeholder that’s otherwise largely forgotten about, jokes insurance broker Steven Howell: “When something goes wrong, we suddenly become the most influential and important people in the chain – but before that we’re just another P&L.”
It is, of course, yet another spiralling cost on a tour’s balance sheet. But with artist fees and production values trending ever upwards, and inclement weather conditions apparently becoming more common, insuring against a tour or show’s cancellation can be worth every penny.
Howell, of Media Insurance Brokers (MIB), which has offices in London, Glasgow, Dublin and Los Angeles, says that while he doesn’t necessarily see an increase in the number of cancellations, the size of claims is rising (in tandem with rising performance fees and production costs).
“Every year we have lots of claims – there’ve always been cancelled shows – but the claims we’ve had [in 2019] are bigger than before,” he explains. “You’re also getting bigger production going into festivals as they try and differentiate themselves from each other, but it’s mainly because artist fees are higher.
“When something goes wrong, we suddenly become the most influential and important people in the chain”
“The value of claims is getting bigger year on year. And that’s not just by 5%, 10%, even 20% – recently we’ve seen some artists who were earning hundreds or low thousands [of dollars] per show, and they’re now earning hundreds of thousands. Then at the top end, you’ve obviously got the people who earn two or three million a show.”
The result is, of course, higher premiums, with experts telling IQ that premiums have increased, on average, 20-30% in the past year alone. And there are indications cancellation insurance could cost even more in the next 12 months.
“This year has seen an increase in cancellations compared to previous years on both sides of the Atlantic,” says Tim Thornhill of international insurance brokerage Integro (which is set to rebrand as Tysers in 2020 after a recent acquisition). “The US has been hit by strong winds, storms and fires, and when these happen during a tour – particularly a big one – or any mass-participation events, it will have a big bearing on the level of claims that insurers are liable to pay out.”
“There have been an awful lot of large claims, which has had a big impact on the insurance market,” agrees Miller’s Martin Goebbels, speaking to IQ from London (the company also has offices in Paris, Brussels, Singapore, and Ipswich, UK). “Whether the number of claims as a percentage has increased I don’t know, but certainly on the weather side they are growing.”
The impact of this cluster of large pay-outs, says Goebbels, is that premiums have increased recently, and several large insurers have pulled out of offering cancellation insurance altogether.
“This year has seen an increase in cancellations compared to previous years on both sides of the Atlantic”
Hard Time
This, explains Integro’s Tim Rudland, is “what’s called a ‘hardening market,’ where insurers have increased their premiums due to a number of losses in the contingency market.” (Examples of ‘contingency’ insurance products include policies covering event cancellation, non-appearance, terrorism and prize indemnity.)
“Some insurers have reduced the amount they are able to write, and some have stopped writing this type of business altogether,” Rudland continues, “which means that the size of the market is shrinking.”
According to Howden’s Robert Barron, formerly vice-president of accident, health, sports and contingency at US insurance brokerage giant Lockton, in 2018 loss ratios incurred by non-appearances reached the highest level since records began in 1999.
“As a result of such losses, there has been a scaling back in lines, and three market exits since last summer [2017],” he wrote last year. “Barbican and Travelers both exited the standalone contingency business for 2017, while ProSight Specialty Insurance, which wrote contingency as part of its media and entertainment book, placed its Lloyd’s operation into orderly run-off last June.”
“In the past 12 months, there have been five or six decent-sized insurers that have pulled out of event-cancellation insurance altogether,” adds Goebbels, who notes that there have been a number of high-profile, non-music cancellation claims in that period, too, including severe weather-hit rugby and cricket fixtures. “All those claims go into the same book of business,” he explains, “so insurers have a much wider view of the risks.”
“There’s a larger pool of artists who could cause an issue for insurers”
The same is true in continental Europe, says Matthias Grischke, the founder of Novitas based in Ahrensburg near Hamburg. “Some major companies, like Swiss Re, have left the market, and a number of mergers have also reduced the total number of insurers,” Grischke explains, although he notes, “we aren’t really feeling a lack of capacity yet.”
This, in turn, he says, drives up prices. “The insurers have united a lot more,” Goebbels says. “They have their associations and they get together and they say we can’t sustain this – we either cut each other’s throats or we close ranks to make sure we maintain a market standard.”
Other factors can also push up premiums – although, contrary to popular opinion, Goebbels says he isn’t seeing a disproportionate amount of cancellations by artists of a particular genre (urban acts are often described anecdotally as being especially cancel-happy), suggesting insurers are rather “keeping a watching brief in a lot of areas. Something like when Krept was stabbed, for example [the rapper, one half of Krept and Konan, was attacked backstage at BBC Radio 1Xtra Live in Birmingham in October], they’ll be keeping an eye on – but it hasn’t yet had any impact.”
If anything, he adds, of more interest to insurers is the increasing average age of performers: “There’s a larger pool of artists who could cause an issue for insurers,” Goebbels explains. “Paul McCartney is 78, Patti Smith is 74… the implications [of artists getting older] is much, much higher premiums.”
Continue reading this feature in the digital edition of IQ 87 2019, or subscribe to the magazine here
Integro rebrands as Tysers
Integro’s entertainment and sports division has rebranded as Tysers, effective immediately, the leading insurance brokerage has announced.
Integro Entertainment and Sport – formed in 2015 following the acquisition of EIP (Robertson Taylor) – acquired Tysers, an historic insurance wholesaler based in the City of London, in June 2018.
The rebranding comes amid a wider shift across the Integro group, with all areas of its business moving to adopt the Tysers name. The combined business employs over 1,100 employees globally and places close to US$3 billion of insurance premiums.
Tim Thornhill, director of sales for entertainment and sport, comments: “By joining up with Tysers, Integro Entertainment and Sport becomes part of an incredible legacy.
“We’re excited to bring together these leading industry names under the unified brand of Tysers”
“We will continue to provide forward-thinking, nimble solutions for our clients who remain at the heart of what we do.”
David Abraham, Tysers’ head of global broking, adds: “Our Entertainment and Sport business has grown through acquisitions of a number of strong brands, including Robertson Taylor, Doodson, Ellis Clowes, ACJ and Integro.
“We’re excited to bring together these leading industry names under the unified brand of Tysers, celebrating our double centennial in 2020.”
Read IQ’s cancellation insurance feature, which includes contributions from Thornhill and Integro colleagues, in the latest issue, out now.
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