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"Millionaire" Maker Sues Disney
In showbiz, it's best to:
A. Make as much money as possible.B. Screw the other guy.
C. Manipulate the rules to your advantage.
D. All of the above.
The final answer is "D," at least according to the U.K. creator of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, who is suing Disney for a sweetheart licensing deal with broadcast and production subsidiaries that allegedly cut him out of the profits.
Series creator Paul Smith, his company Celador International and affiliated music production company Lusam Music have accused Disney of selling the TV series to ABC "at prices well below the fair market value," according to legal documents filed Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court.
The suit also claims that Disney is using the show's dramatic theme music at its amusement parks without permission from Lusam Music.
Now, Smith & Co. are seeking unspecified monetary damages and an injunction to keep the Mouse from licensing the show at below-market rates. All told, they charge Disney with breach of contract, breach of good faith and fair dealing, fraud and unfair competition.
"In essence, Disney sits on both sides of the bargaining table in any negotiation for the production and distribution rights to the series, thereby enabling it to manipulate negotiations in any way that serves its corporate interests," according to the complaint.
"Because of Disney's vertical integration, Disney will keep most of those revenues within the Disney empire in the form of cost savings and increased profits to ABC, BVT and Valleycrest and thus to the Disney corporate bottom line [and] to the detriment of Celador."
Disney did not immediately respond to the allegations.
The hot (and then not) show started airing in the U.K. in 1998. A year later, Celador inked its deal with Disney to produce and distribute the quiz show Stateside.
ABC premiered Who Wants to Be a Millionaire hosted by Regis "Is That Your Final Answer" Philbin Aug. 16, 1999. It quickly became a pop-culture phenomenon propelling ABC to the top of the Nielsen charts, but it imploded from overexposure in 2001 and has never recovered--a syndicated daytime version currently airs with Meredith Vieira, while Philbin has returned for a sweeps-only special titled Who Wants to Be a Super Millionaire that antes the pot up to $10 million.
In the suit, Smith charges that Disney failed to renegotiate a higher license fee with ABC after the show's successful launch. Instead, the Mouse allegedly pressured its subsidiaries to hike production costs to equal the per-episode licensing fee so that the show didn't generate profit that had to be shared with Celador.
"Disney has pressured and caused ABC, BVT and Valleycrest to enter into negotiations and agreements with each other on an other than arm's-length basis and without establishing license fees that are priced fairly and reasonably for a television series as successful as [Millionaire]," the lawsuit claims.
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