Sports indie operating with 30 employees as live events shut down.
Sports indie Sunset + Vine has furloughed three-quarters of staff as production is put on pause, with senior execs taking pay cuts.
Speaking to trade publication Sport Business, Jeff Foulser, who chairs the Tinopolis-owned producer, said around 100 individuals – 77% of its 130 staff – have been placed on the government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, from across its London, Scottish and Welsh operations.
Higher-paid execs are to take salary cuts to ease financial pressure.
All of Sunset+Vine’s sporting contracts have been paused in line with the global shutdown of live events but the indie has continued to apply for tender processes for productions to be made once lockdown is lifted.
The only output it can keep making is BT’s pundit-led football and rugby union programming, which has continued in some form as presenters review archived content.
Foulser said the furloughing move is part of a business plan to keep the outfit going “until at least September and beyond”.
“We’re fortunate that we’ve got a strong balance sheet and plenty of cash in the business and we’re part of a group of companies,” he said.
“We moved quite quickly to make sure we preserved our cash to enable us to keep going way into the future.”
Similar-sized sports indie Whisper has furloughed around half of its 80-strong workforce, with chief executive Sunil Patel sacrificing his year’s salary to help top up lower-paid staff.
This article, by senior reporter Max Goldbart, originally appeared on Broadcast.