A jury awarded millions of dollars in damages to the creators of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.” Walt Disney Co. will have to pay $269.2 million to a British TV production company because a jury sided with them in a case accusing Disney of hiding profits with creative accounting, according to the Associated Press. “We believe this verdict is fundamentally wrong and will aggressively seek to have it reversed,” Disney said in a statement, reported the AP.
The production company, Celador, asked for a minimum of $202 million and a maximum of $395 million. The jury awarded the company $260 million in license fees and another $9.2 million in merchandising claims for sales of the home edition of the game show. “At a time when (Disney-owned) ABC was ranked last among the networks and desperately needed a hit, it entered into an agreement with Celador to put ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’ on the air and share the profits of success — if there was success — with Celador 50-50. Every witness testified that was the deal,” Lead Celador attorney Roman Silberfeld told the Associated Press.
The show was extremely popular when it first launched with Regis Philbin as the host. The show ranked among the top ten most popular shows in 1999 and 2000. However, accounting records show the program lost money, according to attorneys. “If you look at an accounting statement today, after 10 years on the air, it says it has lost money every year and is $75 million in the red,” Silberfeld told the AP. Appeals are likely to take a couple of years.
Tags: Television, British television, American Broadcasting Company, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
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