NBCUniversal Scores New Trial Over $70M In ‘Columbo’ Profits

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://deadline.com/2019/12/columbo-lawsuit-new-trial-nbcuniversal-unpaid-profits-1202798872/

Columbo’s circumstantial way of solving a TV crime now has a real-life judicial aspect too, it seems.

Just over a month after a Los Angeles Superior Court judge awarded $70.3 million in profit participation to the creators of the iconic Peter Falk-led detective series, the same judge today threw his own judgment out and ordered a new trial.

“Needless to say, we are pleased the Court agreed with our position on the pivotal contract issue and look forward to concluding what little remains of the case,” attorney Daniel Petrocelli said on behalf of NBCUniversal after its November 5 motion to have a new trial was granted. That pivotal contract issue was the definition of “photoplays,” which the paperwork did allow distributor Universal to deduct. Due to the multi-phase nature of the case, the definition wasn’t given to the jurors until after they had awarded the big bucks — a fatal flaw the defendants seemingly successfully pointed out.

Now its a dispute between the creators of Columbo and NBC the owners/distributor of the classic show.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Levinson

Richard Levinson and William Link are the named parties in the dispute with NBC over royalties/contract from Columbo.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://www.latimes.com/entertainme...ct-against-nbc-universal-over-columbo-profits

Here is more on a royalties dispute between the Film distributor and the estate of the creators of the show. Yes this is close on the same lines as we seen recently in the recording Music industry where an artist has a dispute with their label over their contracts in the recent Taylor Swift/Big Machine dispute. This time its on TV and Film.

The court ruled Monday that the jury should have been instructed on the meaning of certain key provisions that determined whether NBC Universal had the right to deduct distribution fees for the 1970s detective series.

The case is the latest win for media companies in so-called profit participation cases, where creators of shows or films claim a greater cut or rights to the spoils from a hit.

This spring, a different judge at the same court overturned a $128-million award to the stars and two producers of Fox’s longtime hit show “Bones,” the largest award of its kind. However, the judge left in place a $50-million actual damages judgment against Fox, which produced the crime drama that ran from 2005 to 2017.

The cases have shone a light on murky Hollywood accounting practices that often result in court battles.

“Needless to say, we are pleased the court agreed with our position on the pivotal contract issue and look forward to concluding what little remains of the case,” Daniel Petrocelli, the O’Melveny & Myers partner who represented NBC Universal, said in an email. Petrocelli also fought Fox’s case.

The complaint by Foxcroft Productions Inc. and Fairmount Productions Inc. — entities representing Link‘s and Levinson’s heirs — was first filed in November 2017.