The export is an audiovisual production service: the historical drama “Winter Palace”
With the eight-part period drama series “Winter Palace”, Geneva-based production company Point Productions SA has surpassed anything previously filmed in Switzerland. SERV supported the visionary project by providing working capital insurance and supplier credit insurance.
17.02.2025
The Swiss-produced series “Winter Palace” tells the story of a visionary who boldly and consciously takes risks and pursues his goals with ambition and perseverance. And this archetypal visionary is not confined to the screen: it took vision and perseverance on the part of Swiss company Point Productions to bring a production of this magnitude to fruition. The eight-part series has surpassed anything previously filmed in Switzerland. To finance the opulent Swiss production, the company teamed up with Netflix for the first time.
From Switzerland to the USA
Point Productions was founded in 1996 and specialises in audiovisual production and cinema. The company provides content and services for the major European broadcasters, spanning the length of the entire audiovisual production cycle. The creators of “Winter Palace” came up with the original idea on a chairlift in Valais back in 2016. SRG/RTS and Point Productions began developing the audiovisual production more than seven years ago. The eight-part series was co-produced with the French studio Oble.
The Swiss production
Filming began in October 2023 in the village of Glion to the north of Montreux, where the set designers recreated the interiors of a palace, and continued in the Valais Alps until March 2024. It was an enormous undertaking, with 18 weeks of filming in various locations, 950 extras, 6,000 costume parts, a dozen horse-drawn carriages and sleds, and a technical crew of around 60.
Challenges of the project
The key challenge was securing financing for the ambitious production. To supplement SRG’s extraordinary contribution, a partner had to be found that combined film-making prowess with the willingness to provide additional financial support for the project. Netflix came on board in the wake of the “Lex Netflix” film financing law, which entered into force in 2024, requiring streaming platforms to reinvest four per cent of their local revenues in Swiss film and TV productions. This cooperation was therefore crucial. SERV also played its part, because how do you guarantee the cash flow for such a massive production?
SERV insurance in record time
The export good in this extraordinary export transaction was the audiovisual production service. SERV supported the project by insuring the working capital loan from Banque Cantonale de Genève. We also insured Netflix’s payment default risk until the series is finally handed over to the streaming platform in 2025.
Time was of the essence for this transaction. Negotiations over the framework conditions, SERV’s comprehensive risk analysis and the necessary coordination with the bank were all completed inside 13 working days. The quotation was then submitted and the insurance policy sent out a week later. Despite the complexity of the transaction, this was one of SERV’s fastest-ever application turnarounds.
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