Trial begins over TV rights to Golden Globe Awards

A legal battle over who controls the television rights to the Golden Globe Awards kicked off Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

At issue is a 2010 TV deal that Dick Clark Productions, which produces the Golden Globe Awards telecast, signed to keep the program on NBC.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. (HFPA), which created and owns the Golden Globes, filed suit soon after that deal, alleging it was done without the group’s approval.

Dick Clark Productions, which has been a partner with the HFPA on the Globes since 1983, has argued it had the right to negotiate a new contract with NBC and didn’t need a green light from the HFPA.

“The contract says no such thing,” Daniel Petrocelli, the lawyer representing the HFPA, said in his opening remarks. He added that the actions of Dick Clark Productions prevented “the rights from being sold to the highest bidder.” The idea that the HFPA would have signed an agreement that would allow that, he said, “defies common sense.”

Martin Katz, the lawyer for Dick Clark Productions, fired back in his opening remarks that the company did not need permission to renew with NBC and that the suit is an effort by the HFPA to undo a contract it no longer likes.

The first witness was Fran LaMaina, the retired president of Dick Clark Productions, who oversaw several of the early contract talks between the two entities.

Petrocelli questioned LaMaina on the history of the relationship, trying to show how closely involved the HFPA had been in the business side of the awards show.

LaMaina countered Petrocelli’s accusation that he had misled the HFPA, and said that it wasn’t his job to make sure the HFPA’s officers understood the full implications of the deal between Dick Clark and NBC.

The crux of the fight is over a 1993 amendment to the partnership that Dick Clark Productions argues gives it the right to produce the show and be a 50-50 partner as long as it remains on NBC.

The HFPA is trying to show that it would never knowingly agree to such a condition, which would prevent the show from being shopped to other networks.

The bench trial is expected to last at least two weeks.

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