By 
ABC isn’t letting Prospect Park’s lawsuit go unanswered. In response to Prospect Park Network’s $95 million lawsuit, ABC has a counterclaim, seeking $5 million in damages plus unpaid licensing fees for All My Children and One Life to Live reports Deadline.
Last April, Prospect Park filed suit against ABC over allegations of conspiracy, sabotage and breach of contract. Prospect Park later amended the lawsuit last November, months after shutting down production, alleging ABC conspired to create a “mega soap” and defraud Prospect Park Networks by sabotaging their efforts to reboot the soaps, among other things.
ABC says the fees for Season 1 of All My Children and One Life to Live were $4.5 million and $4 million, respectively. ABC’s countersuit seeks to recover all unpaid Series Fees owed up to and through the date of the trial of this action as a result of Prospect Park’s failure to pay in breach of the License Agreement. ABC says Prospect Park paid them the series fees for both series for the months of April, May and June 2013, but it only paid the fees for All My Children for July and August 2013, but hasn’t issued any payments since, despite ABC’s demand. As part of its suit, ABC is seeking compensatory damages, legal fees and interest before and after the judgment.
Under the terms of the licensing deal, series fees for both shows would have amounted to more than $145 million over the course of 15 seasons.
“We value the history and the legacy of both All My Children and One Life to Live. They are television institutions,” a network representative stated. “Prospect Park has the exclusive rights to these programs. It was their decision to discontinue producing new episodes online thereby disappointing fans. Prospect Park has not honored their agreement with ABC.”
Prospect Park Networks filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this week, listing ABC as one of its top creditors with $1.7 million owed. Additionally PPN owes money to the Writer’s Guild, Screen Actors Guild, Director’s Guild, Connecticut Film Center and actors including Erika Slezak (Viki, OLTL), Tuc Watkins (David, OLTL) and Denyse Tontz (Miranda, AMC), among others.
Prospect Park has stated its bankruptcy filing would not impact ongoing litigation against ABC.
To read ABC’s full complaint, including details regarding the amendments to the licensing agreement with Prospect Park and terms of use for the One Life to Live characters, click here.
See Also:
[related limit=”5″]
Comments