LOS ANGELES — A trial is needed to determine whether the longtime producer of the Golden Globe Awards had the rights to negotiate a deal keeping the glitzy awards show on NBC through 2018, a federal judge has ruled.
U.S. District Judge Valerie Baker Fairbank issued two rulings in a lawsuit over whether a 1993 agreement granted the show’s longtime producer, dick clark productions, the right to negotiate an extension with NBC last year. She refused to side with either dick clark productions or the show’s organizers, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
Fairbank’s rulings, released Tuesday, state there are issues a jury should decide in whether the agreement and the later actions by both sides meant the production company has rights to work on the show for as long as it airs on NBC.
The 2012 show, scheduled for Jan. 15, is not in jeopardy, although the ruling gives the association less time to try to negotiate a new broadcast deal if a jury rules in its favour.
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has argued it did not intend to give away its broadcast rights to the production company indefinitely, although attorneys for dick clark productions argue it was a reward for restoring the show to a major network after scandal knocked it from airwaves.