ABC vs. Celador Lawsuit Begins

[RegisFan]

thresq.hollywoodreporter.com/2010/04/who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire-lawsuit-celador.html

Very interesting. I'm curious to see how this unfolds.

[Reidb1700]

I am curious of how it'll turn out too...

[FrankT]

Lawsuit?! Oh no, what a nightmare!

[hastin]

I wonder if this lawsuit includes not licencing the music for the "Play It!" attractions.

[Reidb1700]

Very good point Hastin......

P.S. Welcome!

[FrankT]

There'll be no more Millionaire after this!

[Reidb1700]

FrankT: I highly doubt it. If they did, a petition would go out to them to bring it back.

[hastin]

This just means some lost money for Disney/ABC if they lose. With the rights to Millionaire now owned by Sony, this is just a pickup for those 'lost profits' back in the Regis' days.

[FrankT]

WORLD EXCLUSIVE!!!

Celador have won the lawsuit!

uk.tv.yahoo.com/08072010/19/celador-win-battle-show-profits.html

Does this mean no more Millionaire for the USA?

[RyanZ]

According to Alex Davis (from BuzzerBlog) the show will not be cancelled, although this isn't backed up by an announcement by either sides.

[millionaire94]

In my opinion, and now that ABC/Disney have lost the battle and that Davies is no longer the Exec. Producer, US WWTBAM is falling down the stairs...

[FrankT]

Oh no. This really is the end!

[RegisFan]

I honestly don't think that this lawsuit will affect the production itself. It's a matter between Disney and Celador over legal issues, not about the operation of the game.

However, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the questions get a little harder to offset the heavy sum being paid to Celador. I'm not saying it will happen, but I wouldn't be shocked if it did.

I'm actually really surprised that Disney lost this case. The Celador attorneys must have had a really good case.

[Reidb1700]

Very interesting...

I am highly doubting they will cancel Millionaire for many years. It is getting, I believe, 3-4 million view per day. Also, Disney does have a lot of money, but this was a huge loss, so I agree with RegisFan, I wouldn't be surprised if they made the questions harder for a season to regain some of that money. And it is surprising Disney lost, I would be in favor of Disney.

[Mech]

May 10, 2010 18:50:05 GMT -5 hastin said:

I wonder if this lawsuit includes not licencing the music for the "Play It!" attractions.

Doubt it. ABC had the rights for the US and could basically use the music any way they wanted in the country as long as it was relevant to the show. It doesn't get any more relevant than a x3 scale working replica of the game! The lawsuit was also about profits from the show - something the attraction had 0 of (or at least no way to track it), so the Play It! attraction had nothing to due with the case.

Jul 9, 2010 1:49:00 GMT -5 Reidb1700 said:

Very interesting...

I am highly doubting they will cancel Millionaire for many years. It is getting, I believe, 3-4 million view per day. Also, Disney does have a lot of money, but this was a huge loss, so I agree with RegisFan, I wouldn't be surprised if they made the questions harder for a season to regain some of that money. And it is surprising Disney lost, I would be in favor of Disney.

The view count is in the right range. The show does well very consistently and it'll probably be around for a long, long time. Disney has a disgusting amount of money to their name and the $270+ Million lost in the lawsuit was classified as "a drop in the bucket" pretty much. Don't expect the show to get harder because of this. Buena Vista Television is the entity of Disney/ABC that funds the show and signs the checks, and they weren't the ones sued, the Disney parent company was to my knowledge. That said, it won't affect the show in the slightest. Not that they would make the show harder to compensate for a lawsuit anyway - that'd be a certain recipe for death.