An international body has criticised an internal memo sent by the US broadcaster ABC telling its in-house producers to rip-off foreign formats.
The Format Recognition and Protection Association (Frapa), which polices copyright on television formats, called the memo “unacceptable”, saying it “effectively gives permission to ABC’s producers to copy ‘the underlying premise’ of a show without licensing the format”.
The memo in question was sent by Howard Davine, executive vice-president of ABC Studios, the network’s production arm, and later leaked to an American media industry blog.
Frapa, which is based in Cologne and represents over 100 TV production companies internationally, has had no response from the ABC network or its owner Disney.
“Frapa and the international TV production industry have waited in vain for ABC and/or Disney to respond to Howard Davine’s memo which, if authentic, is unacceptable both creatively and commercially,” a statement from the group’s board said.
“Frapa believes in, and fights for, the intellectual property of formats. Frapa believes that formats belong to the people who create them and that they should not be used unlawfully by any third party, even one as powerful as ABC.”
David Lyle, president of Fox Reality and founding member of Frapa’s steering committee, added: “If ABC and Disney refuse to repudiate the contents of the Davine memo, then producers in both the US and around the world might note their silence and help themselves to the ‘underlying premise’ of Hannah Montana.”
The memo, sent to ABC executive producers and show-runners, urged them to “carefully scrutinise” whether licensing foreign formats was “necessary or appropriate”.
“What is often overlooked, or not fully appreciated, are the complexities associated with negotiating format deals, coupled with the fact that often-times what is appealing in the format may be nothing more than a general underlying premise, which, in and of itself, may be no reason to license the underlying property,” Lavine wrote.
LA-based ABC Studios have declined to comment formally, although sources have said the memo had been “completely misinterpreted”.
Elsewhere, formats are being legitimately reproduced to fill scheduling gaps left by the WGA writers’ strike. American network NBC has begun production on a US version of the popular Australian sitcom Kath & Kim, which will star Selma Blair. Although we’re not so sure the Yanks will be as good as “yewsing yewmour” as the Aussies.
