GSN Sues Fremantle Over Clip Usage

[Robair]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/telev...t_id=1000882802

[Dbacksfan12]

[quote name=\'Robair\' date=\'Apr 14 2005, 02:20 AM\']http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/telev...t_id=1000882802

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While I understand the logistics of the lawsuit, I find it a foolhardy decision.  Certainly they could have come to some sort of agreement before it reached the press; and it'll be that much harder to renew the license when it expires; let alone pick up additional properties such as Price.

[cmjb13]

[quote name=\'Modor\' date=\'Apr 14 2005, 04:25 AM\']and it'll be that much harder to renew the license when it expires; let alone pick up additional properties such as Price.

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When it comes time to make money, bad blood/lawsuits usually have a way of not impacting a deal.

Wonder why NBC didn't get in trouble for those Most outrageous specials? Was that because footage was supplied from viewers?

[Particleman]

[quote name=\'cmjb13\' date=\'Apr 14 2005, 05:17 AM\'][quote name=\'Modor\' date=\'Apr 14 2005, 04:25 AM\']and it'll be that much harder to renew the license when it expires; let alone pick up additional properties such as Price.

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[/quote]Wonder why NBC didn't get in trouble for those Most outrageous specials? Was that because footage was supplied from viewers?

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I doubt that since the property of the footage still belongs to the same company no matter who supplies it.

Thinking back to the last time I saw the Greatest Game Show Moments, the Game Show Network logo was on the lower right hand corner of the screen during some of the clips they were showing.  I think from that standpoint, a casual viewer would think that the footage was being povided courtesy of GSN, which would indicate that GSN has the exclusive rights to the footage to them.  It'll be interesting to see how this plays out in court if it makes it that far.

[gtbecbp]

[quote name=\'Particleman\' date=\'Apr 14 2005, 07:22 AM\'][quote name=\'cmjb13\' date=\'Apr 14 2005, 05:17 AM\'][quote name=\'Modor\' date=\'Apr 14 2005, 04:25 AM\']and it'll be that much harder to renew the license when it expires; let alone pick up additional properties such as Price.

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[/quote]Wonder why NBC didn't get in trouble for those Most outrageous specials? Was that because footage was supplied from viewers?

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I doubt that since the property of the footage still belongs to the same company no matter who supplies it.

Thinking back to the last time I saw the Greatest Game Show Moments, the Game Show Network logo was on the lower right hand corner of the screen during some of the clips they were showing.  I think from that standpoint, a casual viewer would think that the footage was being povided courtesy of GSN, which would indicate that GSN has the exclusive rights to the footage to them.  It'll be interesting to see how this plays out in court if it makes it that far.

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And with that good point made, I assume that GSN was not going to be getting the same credit this time.

Ben

[JMFabiano]

Do you think the fallout of this will lead to another Dark Period (OK, Dark Period 2.5, as some people consider what we went through up until last Monday as DP2)?  That is, will it hurt Fremantle's agreeing to allow GSN to air the G-T shows and PYL?  At this point another DP would be worse, since GSN doesn't have all of Sony's properties to fall back on this time.

[Terry K]

this seems like a ploy to me to get those specials moved to GSN.  (That may be the ultimate solution to this situation)

With those NBC specials, they did give GSN credit and that is definately what kept Cronin and Co. happy.

Remember, Cronin fought tooth and nail on programming at Viacom, and if my suspicions are correct, this may be some revenge on VH1 as well (I suspect strongly these are the Ben Stein specials in question, but I could be wrong entirely)

[uncamark]

Randy hasn't spoken yet, but considering that Fremantle's producing the VH1 Ben Stein clipfests, that's probably what GSN's suing over.

The bad blood will probably go away whenever there's another boss change at either Fremantle or GSN.  Nowadays, it seems like no one stays around anywhere more than maybe five years.  Fremantle had a CEO change last year, but Cronin's now been at GSN almost four years.  He may be getting wanderlust by now.

[FeudDude]

[quote name=\'JMFabiano\' date=\'Apr 14 2005, 11:46 AM\']Do you think the fallout of this will lead to another Dark Period (OK, Dark Period 2.5, as some people consider what we went through up until last Monday as DP2)?  That is, will it hurt Fremantle's agreeing to allow GSN to air the G-T shows and PYL?  At this point another DP would be worse, since GSN doesn't have all of Sony's properties to fall back on this time.

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Worse for us diehards, certainly, but as much as I hate to admit it, GSN could do just fine without the G-T library.  They'd probably just bring back the recently yanked originals, put Hollywood Squares and Russian Roulette back on weekday duty, replace B&W Overnight with infomericals, and then just fill in the rest of the holes with Weakest Link, Millionaire, and WBSM.

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'Terry K\' date=\'Apr 14 2005, 01:34 PM\']this seems like a ploy to me to get those specials moved to GSN.  (That may be the ultimate solution to this situation)[/quote]
If GSN wanted to get their hands on these specials, suing the producer would seem to be just about the worst possible way to go about it.

[JMFabiano]

[quote name=\'FeudDude\' date=\'Apr 14 2005, 04:24 PM\'][quote name=\'JMFabiano\' date=\'Apr 14 2005, 11:46 AM\']Do you think the fallout of this will lead to another Dark Period (OK, Dark Period 2.5, as some people consider what we went through up until last Monday as DP2)?  That is, will it hurt Fremantle's agreeing to allow GSN to air the G-T shows and PYL?  At this point another DP would be worse, since GSN doesn't have all of Sony's properties to fall back on this time.

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Worse for us diehards, certainly, but as much as I hate to admit it, GSN could do just fine without the G-T library.  They'd probably just bring back the recently yanked originals, put Hollywood Squares and Russian Roulette back on weekday duty, replace B&W Overnight with infomericals, and then just fill in the rest of the holes with Weakest Link, Millionaire, and WBSM.

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Yep, sounds like V2.5-ahhhhhhhh! (in honor of Matt Hardy, hope to see you in ROH or TNA soon) to me...let's hope it won't come to that.

[Gromit]

Playing closet lawyer, I don't see GSN winning this. A clip show doesn't violate GSN's exclusivity, since they still have exclusivity to 95% of the show, etc.