Lifetime Sues NBCU, Weinstein To Get ‘Runway’ On-Air
Women’s Net Seeks Judgment Naming It Series’ Exclusive Licensee
By Linda Moss -- Multichannel News, 11/20/2008 5:18:00 AM
In the unending stream of Project Runway litigation, now Lifetime Television has filed a new countersuit against NBC Universal, Bravo and even the show’s producer, The Weinstein Co., which did the controversial $200 million deal to move the hit reality series to the women’s network from Bravo.
Lifetime filed its 21-page action Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan, and is seeking a declaratory judgment and injunction declaring Lifetime the exclusive licensee of Project Runway. The show’s move to the women’s network for its sixth season, originally set to start airing this month, has been preliminarily barred by a New York State court judge as litigation winds it way through the courts.
“Project Runway is an extremely valuable asset for Lifetime, with the potential to raise Lifetime’s profile, ratings and profitability,” Lifetime said in its suit Tuesday. “Lifetime already has expended considerable resources and money to position its Lifetime Television network to launch the next cycle of Project Runway in January 2009, committing to advertisers and the viewing public that this would occur. The failure to launch Project Runway as expected will have a serious negative impact on Lifetime’s goodwill with its viewers and advertisers.”
The string of Project Runway lawsuits started in April, when NBCU sued The Weinstein Co. for breach of contract for doing a deal to move the show to Lifetime from Bravo. NBCU claims it had a right of first refusal. In its suit, Lifetime said that it’s paid The Weinstein Co. a $20 million advance.
In September, New York State Court Judge Richard Lowe issued a preliminary injunction to stop Project Runway’s move. A month later, Lifetime had the case moved to federal court, claiming that matter involved copyright issues, which are federal jurisdiction.
Weinstein, which is already produced all but the last two of the sixth-season episodes of Project Runway for Lifetime, is a “nominal” defendant in the latest suit. Lifetime claims it was unaware that there would be legal right-of-first-refusal issues with the show.
“Throughout Lifetime’s negotiations with TWC [The Weinstein Co.] Lifetime made it clear to TWC that having Project Runway free and clear of any third-party obligations was an essential pre-condition to concluding a package with TWC,” Lifetime said in its complaint. “TWC consistently provided representations and warranties to that effect, including those expressly incorporated into the agreement.”
NBCU issued a statement Wednesday in response to Lifetime’s countersuit.
“Lifetime was well aware of NBC Universal's state court case the day it was filed and made the decision to wait for several months before seeking to intervene at the 11th hour in the state court case,” NBCU said. “Lifetime's new federal court filing is yet another desperate maneuver by them to avoid trying this case in state court, where NBC Universal has already won a preliminary injunction against The Weinstein Co. and where the case was on an expedited track to trial.”
In its own statement, Lifetime said, “This is the next step in our dispute with NBCU over the rights to Project Runway. We filed a complaint for declaratory judgment and injunctive relief as a further means of trying to insure that the copyright issues in this dispute are decided by a federal court.”
