This coverage is provided through Walterry Insurance Brokers, a division of Heffernan Insurance Brokers with decades of specialized experience in media liability insurance.
Insurance for TV and Radio Broadcast Stations
Running a broadcast operation means constantly balancing new technology, audience expectations, and a fast-moving legal landscape — all while staying on the air. That balancing act comes with real exposure: defamation, invasion of privacy, emotional distress, copyright and trademark infringement, misappropriation, and advertising errors and omissions can all surface in the course of everyday programming.
Here’s what that exposure can look like in practice:
- A public official sued you for false light because of broadcasted hidden camera footage of the official allegedly engaging in the misuse of taxpayer funds.
- A company sued you for trademark infringement, alleging that your organization had aired a series of programs under a “confusingly similar” name.
- An employee made an unflattering comment about a person in a radio interview, and that person sued you for defamation and emotional distress.
- A news broadcast inadvertently included personal information about someone, who then sued you for invasion of privacy
Coverage Built for Broadcasters
Broadcast stations need protection that goes well beyond a standard general liability or property policy. Through our partnership with AXIS Insurance Company, our media insurance program brings together the coverage broadcasters need under one policy, backed by underwriting and claims teams that include attorneys focused specifically on First Amendment, privacy, intellectual property, and cyber/data security matters — the same issues that tend to come up in on-air disputes and licensing conflicts. Our specialists have spent more than 45 years working exclusively in media insurance, and our program carries the endorsement of the National Newspaper Association and 28 state and regional press associations.