Film Production
UK producers bid to extend Covid2019 insurance scheme
MUMBAI: UK producers are in discussions with the government to extend the landmark £500 million ($664.6 million) Covid2019 insurance scheme for film & TV production.
Media reports said that producers have sought permission to extend the deadline for the Film and TV Production Restart Scheme to June 2021. If approved, it will ensure coverage for the spring production rush when filmmakers take advantage of longer daylight hours. UK producers’ body Pact is currently gathering information to support the extension, which will be presented to the country’s department for digital, culture, media & sport (DCMS), the government body in charge.
When the proposal was first announced, the deadline was originally 31 December and has since been extended to 28 February. The extension is intended to “help even more productions access the scheme, reflecting ongoing uncertainty and the continued inability of productions to secure private insurance for coronavirus-related risks,” said a statement from the DCMS at the time.
Under the scheme, productions can receive compensation for future coronavirus-related losses including filming delays from illness among cast and crew. There is a total cap on insurance claims per production of £5 million ($6.65 million), and production houses need to pay an “appropriate excess” when seeking to claim under the scheme, as well as an “appropriate fee” when joining the scheme. Productions also need to purchase other, more standard insurance to cover non-Covid2019 risks to ensure their production is adequately insured.
Insurance claims are expected to significantly reduce as the Covid2019 vaccine, which began rolling out across the country last week, expands and reaches maximum people.
Film Production
Disney to cut 1,000 jobs under new chief executive
The entertainment giant’s freshly installed boss inherits a restructuring already in motion, with marketing and corporate roles bearing the brunt
CALIFORNIA: Walt Disney is preparing to slash up to 1,000 jobs in the coming weeks, the Wall Street Journal reported, as the entertainment giant’s freshly installed chief executive moves swiftly to trim fat and tighten the ship.
The cuts, less than 1 per cent of Disney’s global workforce of 231,000, will fall hardest on marketing and corporate roles. The planning, notably, began before D’Amaro formally took the top job in March, suggesting the new boss inherited a restructuring already in motion rather than one of his own making.
Driving the push is Asad Ayaz, Disney’s newly appointed chief marketing officer, who in January assumed command of a unified, company-wide marketing operation spanning film, television and streaming. His consolidation drive has been given a suitably cinematic internal name: Project Imagine.
The move is modest by Disney’s recent standards. Between 2023 and 2025, under former chief executive Bob Iger, the company eliminated roughly 8,000 positions across several brutal rounds of cuts, saving $7.5 billion, comfortably exceeding its own targets. As recently as June 2025, several hundred more jobs were axed across Disney Entertainment, hitting film and television marketing, publicity, casting, development and corporate finance.
Disney’s structural headaches are well-documented: shrinking streaming margins, a weakened box office, and fierce competition from Amazon and YouTube gnawing at its flanks. The company is merging its Disney+ and Hulu teams into a single app, has brought in consultants from Bain & Co to guide its broader cost strategy, and is betting heavily on digital growth.
The wider entertainment industry offers little comfort. Sony Pictures, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery have all taken the knife to their workforces in recent years, and further cuts loom if Paramount’s acquisition of Warner goes through.
For D’Amaro, the message is clear: there will be no honeymoon period. The magic kingdom still has some cost-cutting spells left to cast.
