Disney wants its millions back from the Millionaire lawsuit over how it would split profits:
ABC and Buena Vista said in their appeal that the judge overseeing the trial committed a “cascading series of errors” that allowed the jury to interpret the contract to mean that Celador was entitled to a 50 percent share of both ABC’s and Buena Vista’s profits, rather than just Buena Vista’s.
Closely held Celador sued in 2004, claiming Buena Vista and ABC “through a complex web of self-dealing transactions” allowed ABC to keep the advertising revenue and pay Buena Vista only a licensing fee equal to the cost of producing the show. That kept Buena Vista from earning a profit from “Millionaire” that it would have had to share with the creators, Celador said.
The interesting bit:
The show’s “performance in syndication has not matched its network success,” ABC and Buena Vista said. “The show has earned a profit, but the margin has been too low to cover the distribution fee for syndication specified in the rights agreement, let alone make up the deficit.”
Does this mean syndication of the Regis episodes? Is there a different agreement for the current version (now owned by Sony/2Way)?
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-10-10/disney-seeks-reversal-of-319-million-millionaire-loss
