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By Andrea Wells<\/p>\n
The overall landscape of the entertainment world is changing. Increasing cost pressures, labor challenges, the emergence of AI, and the changing appetite of consumers are pushing TV and film makers in new directions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe business in general has been a little weird over the last year and a half or so,\u201d said Marc Idelson, CEO at Reel Media, a Burbank, California-based managing general agency that specializes in insurance for the entertainment, sports, and leisure industries. He said it\u2019s not been business as usual since the industrywide shutdown from May to November 2023 due to labor disputes. \u201cIt\u2019s just been not the same as it\u2019s been in the past,\u201d Idelson said. \u201cIt\u2019s been less production.\u201d<\/p>\n
That has meant less business for insurance specialists in the entertainment industry as well.<\/p>\n
Financial challenges for TV and film makers have driven significant changes in recent years. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, motion picture and video production shed 49,000 jobs from 2016 to 2026, a decline of 21%, while motion picture and video exhibition (mostly movie theaters) cut some 25,000 jobs over the same time, a decline of 17%. Employment in both industries was flat for years until the pandemic-related decline in April 2020.<\/p>\n
But in the past three years, the pace of job loss in the sector has ramped up. According to the DOL, from late 2022, the motion picture and video production industry cut more than 100,000 jobs, or more than 30% of the workforce. Since 2023, labor disputes have persisted and again reached a near strike before agreements were settled in May 2026.<\/p>\n
Some of the financial pain the industry faces come from recent \u201cstreaming wars,\u201d or intense competition between video-on-demand platforms driven by increased demand from consumers for more content. That led to deep cutbacks from many large production firms, Idelson said. \u201cAnd then Wall Street put pressure on some of the studios to actually make money from the streaming, not just spend money on the content.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s shifting landscape in entertainment creates some uncertainty for insurance specialists in the TV and film sector, and consolidation isn\u2019t helping.<\/p>\n
The pending $110 billion merger of Paramount and Warner Bros has the industry worried about what lies ahead, said John Hamby, senior managing director, National Entertainment Practice Leader, at Brown & Brown.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs that going to mean a change in the number of projects that are going to be created, or the types of projects, or will that reduce the ability to hire all the actors and crew?\u201d he said. \u201cAnd so there\u2019s some fear in the industry about that right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
That fear also extends to how consolidation will affect smaller production firms. \u201cThere\u2019s going to be continued consolidation in the \u2018mini\u2019 studio space, where smaller studios that might do one or two or three projects a year want to stay independent, but they can\u2019t and may get swept up by the big guys going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamby said that\u2019s the biggest risk for insurance specialists. \u201cIf our clients get acquired, then that account is gone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Another challenge is the current geopolitical climate worldwide.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re seeing a little slowdown in what they call \u2018green lighting\u2019 of new projects because they can\u2019t go anywhere near where there\u2019s political difficulties,\u201d Hamby said. He said his firm had film projects planned for Abu Dhabi and in the United Arab Emirates this summer, but those are now on hold.<\/p>\n
Hamby said while there\u2019s been a slowdown in projects over the past year or so, it\u2019s not going to be a long-term worry because consumers want more content. \u201cI think there still will be a lot of new productions, in both film and TV,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Wanda Phillips, executive vice president and head of North America Entertainment at Arch Insurance North America, agrees. \u201cWhile production activity has experienced some fluctuations over the past year, we are seeing renewed momentum driven by strong demand for new content across streaming, film, and live events,\u201d Phillips said. \u201cThe entertainment insurance market continues to demonstrate resilience and adaptability in a rapidly evolving risk landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018The business in general has been a little weird over the last year and a half or so.\u2019<\/p>\n
Stable Insurance Market<\/p>\n
For most TV and film projects today, insurance market conditions have stabilized after a few challenging years following the pandemic, specialists said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not necessarily seeing softening premium reductions, but there\u2019s still a solid commitment from the underwriting community to properly underwrite and assess the risks and get the right premium for good risks,\u201d Hamby said. That\u2019s critical because the market for film and TV is a tight niche pool with limited carrier options.<\/p>\n
According to Brown & Brown\u2019s 2026 Outlook Market Trends report, there are approximately 10 carriers operating in this space, and for certain specialized subsectors, that number can drop to as few as two or three. This concentration of risk means that while rates are stabilizing, competition can be limited as carriers are highly sensitive to their exposures.<\/p>\n
But Idelson said it\u2019s a much different insurance market than just a few years ago. \u201cWe even see a few carriers trying to get into the space, trying to come into market, and that trend is lowering rates and deductibles, especially for the larger budgeted productions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Idelson admits that given the tight niche space, there\u2019s a big barrier to entry, so it\u2019s rare to see new entrants for these risks. \u201cAnd the only way they can really get any attention is by giving better terms, lower rates and deductibles than some others,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Entertainment risks are more expensive than ever, driven by record-breaking budgets for film and TV productions, so finding carriers with the capacity to offer needed coverage is a challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey need to be able to provide very large limits because the budgets are extremely high today,\u201d Idelson said. He often sees TV budgets as high as feature film budgets, which wasn\u2019t always the case. \u201cSo, if you don\u2019t have the capability to write those high limits, you can\u2019t really get into the market.\u201d<\/p>\n
International offerings are critical as well because nearly half of all big-budget productions are produced overseas in order to take advantage of tax credits offered by other countries and less expensive labor and construction costs.<\/p>\n
AI\u2019s Impact<\/p>\n
Artificial intelligence is also playing a role as industry workers grapple with the possibility of further job cuts as studios consider AI-generated content, often at reduced costs.<\/p>\n
Hamby said that the use of AI as it relates to acting talent is a key issue with union negotiations for SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists). \u201cThe unions do not want the studios to start creating characters, AI characters, that look like real actors without paying the actors,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The SAG-AFTRA unions maintain that \u201cthe right to digitally replicate a performer\u2019s voice or likeness to substantially manipulate a performance, or to create a new digital performance, is a mandatory subject of bargaining.\u201d Hamby said AI will continue to be a big topic of contract negotiations as technology evolves.<\/p>\n
\u2018The unions do not want the studios to start creating characters, AI characters, that look like real actors without paying the actors.\u2019<\/p>\n
From an insurance standpoint, the exposure related to AI is still developing, according to Idelson. AI is helping to make production a less expensive process, which is a good thing. AI is also helping to create entirely new film productions, without human actors.<\/p>\n
While replacing actors and other industry workers through AI is a huge concern, so are copyright issues when it comes to AI filmmaking. \u201cI don\u2019t think we really understand the exposures yet,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think we truly understand what the true exposure is, so we\u2019re still trying to figure that out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arch\u2019s Phillips said she views the AI movement in entertainment as an exciting period of innovation, where technology and creativity are intersecting and expanding what is possible in entertainment production. It\u2019s one of the most significant developments shaping the market, she told Insurance Journal. But she admits there are both opportunities and challenges in any industry when it comes to AI.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn one hand, it is enhancing efficiency in areas such as risk assessment, claims processing, and production planning. On the other, it is prompting important conversations around intellectual property, contractual clarity, and evolving risk exposures,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Even so, in her view it\u2019s no different than previous technological shifts. \u201cIf we step back and reflect on previous evolutions, AI represents a natural evolution in how we advance as an industry and a society, no different from the transformative shifts we experienced with mobile phones, laptops and the internet. Each brought uncertainty but ultimately created new opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n
She believes that overall, the entertainment market is approaching AI thoughtfully. The market is embracing its potential while working collaboratively with clients, brokers, and legal experts to ensure that proper safeguards are in place, she said.<\/p>\n