lawsuits

“Even CBS must realize it cannot copyright the idea of 14 contestants living in a house rigged with cameras,” the ABC court papers argue.

The NAB is challenging the constitutionality of new FCC rules requiring local TV stations to put information about political advertising online, it said today. The new rules are “arbitrary, capricious, in excess of the commission’s statutory authority, inconsistent with the First Amendment, and otherwise not in accordance with the law,” the association contends.

CBS Television Distribution is suing ComStar Media and FamilyNet for allegedly airing several series, including Happy Days and Family Ties, without paying licensing fees for the programs.

Web video company Hulu is asking a court to dismiss a privacy lawsuit stemming from the company’s involvement with analytics company KISSmetrics, which allegedly used “supercookies” to track people. Hulu says that the consumers who filed suit can’t show they were injured by the alleged tracking.

Current TV wasted no time filing a countersuit on Friday in its bitter divorce from Keith Olbermann, the anchor who was expected to be the star and foundation of the cable network’s future.

Keith Olbermann has filed a lawsuit against Current TV, accusing the cable network of “bad faith termination” and breach of contract. The disgruntled former anchor, who has had a tempetuous run at previous networks, is seeking between $50 million and  $70 million that he claims is still owed him by Current.

The online television service has filed a second countersuit against major broadcasters that want to stop it from retransmitting their programming. The new suit is against News Corp.’s Fox, the Public Broadcasting Service, Univision Communications and New York’s WPIX and WNET.

Conrad Riggs claimed he was owed 10% of Burnett’s earnings from such hits as Survivor and The Apprentice.

Philip Berk, the current chairman and former president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. and a key witness in the organization’s legal battle against Dick Clark Productions over who controls the television rights to the Golden Globes said in court Thursday that he’s “never really been interested in contracts.”

Marc Graboff, who until recently was NBC’s president of West Coast business operations, testified Friday that he warned his bosses at the network that the price tag for the Golden Globes, which ended up being an average of $21.5 million per show, was too high. Graboff was testifying in the legal battle over who controls the TV rights for the Golden Globes between the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., which owns the Globes, and Dick Clark Productions, the longtime producer of the awards show.

NEW YORK (AP) — Macy’s Inc. has sued Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. in a bid to block a licensing deal between the housewares company and J.C. Penney Co. The […]

(RTTNews) — Cable television provider Cablevision Systems Corp. said Tuesday it has filed a lawsuit seeking to end an advertising campaign run by Verizon Inc., which allegedly misleads consumers by […]

Fisher Communications’ ABC affiliate has filed a lawsuit against the Seattle Police Department because the station believes the department is breaking state public records law. For more than a year, KOMO’s Problem Solver investigators have been fighting for access to the department’s database of dashcam videos. The lawsuit, filed in King County Superior Court, contends the police department has intentionally and illegally stonewalled the Problem Solvers over and over again.

There’s been a spate of actions by actors seeking to recover merchandise profits related to classic film and television works. As recently as five years ago, such suits were rare because actors had little way of knowing if and when their images were being used by studios. That has changed, thanks to the Internet, as well as a steep increase in merchandising by studios, making the products more generally visible.

Cablevision and Viacom have resolved a dispute over streaming rights, the media companies said on Wednesday. In a joint statement, the two companies said that Viacom’s programs will continue to appear on the app. Just don’t expect either side to admit they were wrong. “Neither side is conceding its original legal position or will have further comment,” the statement reads.

Comcast Corp, the largest U.S. cable operator, has sued pay TV rival DirecTV, accusing it of misleading consumers by promising “free” broadcasts of National Football League games.

News Corp. is facing about 35 privacy-invasion lawsuits against its News of the World, the tabloid at the center of the phone-hacking scandal. That is up from about two dozen in April.

Gawker, the popular blog based in New York, is going to court to investigate the relationship between Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes and Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey.