Final Answer: Disney Flubbed On "Millionaire" Rights

[DToTheJ]

ABC/Disney has been ordered to pay nearly $270 million in damages to Celador International, the British creators of the popular game show "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire."

According to the verdict, ABC/Disney - who had been in the "hot seat" for nearly a month during the trial - was found to have "failed to perform the obligations of the rights agreement" in its contract with Celador. In a statement, Disney vows to appeal the decision, which they claim is "fundamentally wrong."

ABC imported the series in 2000 with original host Regis Philbin. Buena Vista now airs a syndicated half-hour daily version of the game show with host Meredith Vieira.

Full story:
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/454540-Disney_Loses_Who_Wants_to_Be_a_Millionaire_Suit.php

 

[FreddyE1977]

Wow! Disney has one of the largest assemblies of lawyers outside of the Justice Department!
Somebody is going to get a nasty performance review!

 

[landtuna]

Who would have thought that dumb quiz show would be worth that much money?

 

[Iowan]

Will this mean the end of Who wants to be a millionaire? Or have a new distributor?

 

[imhomerjay]

Not the end of the show by any means. It's a fight over the share of profits. No matter how you slice it, it's in neither side's interest to see the show end at this point. (And Celador wasn't the US distributor.)

 

[Markxxx]

Don't forget what you're ordered to pay and what you wind up paying are usually not even close. Also you can appeal, not only the decision but the amount of money. Even if ABC loses the appeal, they can appeal to reduce the amount of money owed, which happens quite a lot.

And even if the verdict and money amount stand up, Disney will simply raise the cost of tickets at the theme parks, and up ad rates and increase fees everywhere and make it up. When you're as big as Disney it's not hard to increase fees on products a buck or two and make back all that money.