by Thinus Ferreira
Comcast's Sky in the United Kingdom is dragging Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) to court over the upcoming Harry Potter drama series and is suing WBD for allegedly withholding the option for Sky to become a co-producer on the show and being in breach of a multi-year contract to partner on shows.
In a lawsuit that Sky filed late on Friday in a New York federal court, Sky says that WBD is in breach of a contract, signed in 2019 whereby WBD was supposed to offer Sky at least four TV shows, made for its Max streaming service, which Sky could pick from to co-produce.
Sky says WBD "fell far short of that mark" for the entire duration of the contract, that WBD deliberately didn't offer Harry Potter, and is deliberately keeping Harry Potter for itself for its own potential gain as "the cornerstone of the launch of its Max streaming service in Europe".
Harry Potter which is expected to run for a decade as a TV series is supposed to debut its first season in 2016.
It is still unclear whether Harry Potter will be on M-Net (DStv 101) on MultiChoice's DStv in South Africa but the odds increased tremendously after Harry Potter switched to become an HBO Original in June.
In its statement, Sky says it is taking WBD to court "to safeguard our interests and enforce our rights to partner in the production and distribution of highly valuable content".
"Warner has repeatedly failed to offer Sky the annually required minimum number of contractually qualifying series for its consideration," Sky says.
"Specifically, Warner was obligated to present Sky with at least 4 shows per year across 2021, 2022, and 2023 but undisputedly fell far short of that mark, in certain years offering barely a single qualifying series while also withholding critical, contractually required information necessary for Sky to evaluate any potential options that it did receive."
According to Sky, "This misconduct has deprived Sky of its bargained-for opportunity to co-fund, co-produce, and subsequently exploit exclusively in the UK and European territories all manner of top-end Warner content."
"If all that were not enough, Warner has now even brazenly denied Sky its right to partner on Warner's highly valuable decade-long, tentpole television series adapting J.K. Rowling's iconic Harry Potter novels, set to premiere in 2026 or 2027."
"Instead, Warner has largely disregarded the parties' agreement and sought to keep the Harry Potter content for itself so that Warner can use it as the cornerstone of the launch of its Max streaming service in Europe."
According to Sky's 2019 deal with Warner Bros. Discovery, "For each calendar year from 2021 through 2025, Sky shall be presented with all qualifying HBO Max original series, and not less than 4 in any event, that are one hour slot length in duration per episode, intended to be multi-season, produced by WBTV or HBO Max for premiere on HBO Max, and which are ordered within the applicable year to a first season. Sky shall select a minimum of 2 new series per year".
Sky says "We continue to work constructively with Warner Brothers Discovery and have a separate agreement in place that will ensure Sky customers continue to enjoy HBO shows, including new seasons, such as House of the Dragon, The Last of Us, The White Lotus and Euphoria, along with exciting new releases such as Dune: Prophecy, and many more for years to come".
WBD in a statement says WBD's licensing agreements with Sky will all expire at the end of 2015 and that Sky's lawsuit is " a baseless attempt by Sky and Comcast to try and gain leverage in its negotiations for our programming beyond that date".
"We know HBO branded shows are critical to Sky, as evidenced by their desire for over a year to find a way to renew our agreements, and this lawsuit makes it clear that Sky is deeply concerned about the viability of its business were it to lose our award-winning content."
"WBD will vigorously defend itself from this unfounded lawsuit as we move forward undeterred with plans to launch Max, including the new HBO Harry Potter series, in the UK and other European markets in 2026."
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