GECs
Will & Grace producers sue NBC
MUMBAI: The executive producers of the popular television sitcom Will & Grace have have filed a suit against NBC and NBC Studios.
The producers allege that NBC has been conspiring to keep the popular sitcom’s price down to reduce the producer’s share of profits. The sitcom’s creators allege that network has planned to sell the rights to the show at $ 10 million below fair value.
Trouble in Graceland?
According to media reports, the executive producers David Kohan and Jason Mutchnick filed a complaint on 11 December at the Los Angeles Superior Court alleging that the two companies breached their written contracts and fiduciary duties and acted in bad faith.
The lawsuit states that NBC Studios, a subsidiary of NBC and the producer of the show, sought to refrain from shopping the series to other networks to further its own financial interests and those of its parent, the General Electric company. NBC effectively sat on and controlled both sides of the bargaining table, states the suit.
Kohan and Mutchnick said the suit stems from the industry-wide trend of media conglomerates buying up independent production studios, inform the media reports.
Will & Grace, which centers on a New York City interior designer and her best friend, a gay lawyer, has won 12 Emmys since its creation in 1998. The show is currently being aired on Zee English.
According to the suit, despite its success, last year the network pressured NBC Studios not to increase the fee for licensing the rights to the show. During the show’s first four seasons, the studio licensed the rights for financial terms that were insufficient even to cover a reasonable percentage of the series’ production costs and which led to extraordinarily large production deficits.
While it is probably the first time that NBC has been embroiled in a suit, ABC and Fox have been caught in similar legal trouble early on. The producer and creator of Home Improvement , Matt Williams had filed suit against the Walt Disney Company in 1997, stating that Disney’s production arm shaped a deal with the Disney-owned ABC to keep the show on the network, even though it may not have been the best licensing deal. The suit was settled out of court.
While Steven Bochco sued Fox in 1999, stating that he was essentially deprived of as much as $50 million on the sale of NYPD Blue, to the FX cable network. The distributor of the show, 20th Century Fox Television is, like FX, owned by Fox. That suit was eventually resolved.
The reports indicate that the mergers of networks and production companies in the 1990’s have led to the “increasingly common case of negotiations between closely related or commonly owned parties. The result is that profit participants in hit television series, which can earn tens of millions of dollars, sometimes assert that negotiations are designed in large measure to benefit the parent company.”
GECs
Sebi sends show-cause notice to Zee over fund diversion, company responds
Regulator questions 2018 letter of comfort and governance lapses; company vows robust legal response
MUMBAI: India’s markets watchdog has reignited its long-running scrutiny of Zee Entertainment Enterprises, issuing a sweeping show-cause notice that drags the broadcaster and 84 others into a widening governance storm.
The notice, dated February 12, has been served by the Securities and Exchange Board of India to Zee, chairman emeritus Subhash Chandra and managing director and chief executive Punit Goenka, among others. At its heart: allegations that company funds were indirectly routed to settle liabilities of entities linked to the Essel Group.
The regulator’s probe traces its roots to November 2019, when two independent directors resigned from Zee’s board, flagging concerns over the alleged appropriation of fixed deposits by Yes Bank. The deposits were reportedly adjusted against loans extended to Essel Group entities, triggering questions about related-party dealings and board oversight.
A key flashpoint is a letter of comfort dated September 4, 2018, issued by Subhash Chandra in his dual capacity as chairman of Zee and the Essel Group. The document, linked to credit facilities availed by certain group companies from Yes Bank, was allegedly known only to select members of management and not disclosed to the full board—an omission SEBI believes raises red flags over transparency and governance controls.
Zee has pushed back hard. In a statement, the company said it “strongly refutes” the allegations against it and its board members and will file a detailed response. It expressed confidence that SEBI would conduct a fair review and signalled readiness to pursue all legal remedies to protect shareholder interests.
The notice marks the latest twist in a saga that has shadowed the broadcaster since 2019. What began as boardroom unease has morphed into a full-blown regulatory confrontation. The final reckoning now rests with SEBI—but the reputational stakes for Zee, and the message for India Inc on governance discipline, could scarcely be higher.
