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By William B. Depasupil, Reporter
THE Supreme Court turned down the petition of
television giant GMA Network Inc. on its claiming exclusivity and
broadcast rights over a television game show.
In a seven-page decision penned by Associate
Justice Adolf Azcuna, the High Court’s First Division upheld an
earlier Court of Appeals (CA) decision not to issue an injunction
order against Viva Television Corp.
The subject of the GMA-Viva court battle was the
television game show The Weakest Link, a very popular show hosted by
Edu Manzano years back.
“The Court is constrained to sustain the
CA’s ruling that petitioner [GMA] has failed to establish its
right to a writ of preliminary injunction,” the High Court said in
ruling against the suit initiated by GMA Network against Viva.
Chief Justice Reynato Puno, Angelina
Sandoval-Gutierrez, Renato Corona and Teresa Leonardo-De Castro
concurred with the ruling.
The case was brought to the High Court after the
appellate court recognized the contract of GMA Network dated June
14, 200, to air and produce The Weakest Link. But the appellate
court also recognized the contract of respondent Viva of July 17,
2001, to air the same game show.
The appellate court noted that since the GMA
Network contract covers only 52 episodes while the Viva contract
covers 130 episodes, the GMA Network contract had become stale and
the television giant’s request for an injunction was rendered moot
and academic when Viva showed the 55th episode of the game show.
Viva not aware of existing GMA contract
According to the appellate court, Viva was not
aware of the prior and existing contract of GMA Network when it
signed its July 17, 2001 contract with the owners of the game show
from Europe.
However, GMA Network claimed that the appellate
court’s ruling is not in accordance with the law and jurisprudence
because the two contracts cannot co-exist, and that a broadcast
contract is by its very nature exclusive.
GMA Network also asserted that the appellate
court should have enforced its prior and exclusive rights to the
airing of The Weakest Link.
The television network lamented that Viva was
able to air the game show continually because the appellate court
issued a 60-day temporary restraining order that stopped a trial
court from enjoining Viva from airing The Weakest Link.
But the real issue under controversy is whether
or not GMA Network can stop Viva from airing episodes 56 through 130
of the game show, given that its contract covers only 52 episodes.
According to the High Court, the exclusivity is
not expressly provided in GMA Network’s contract. “In fact, GMA
was given only 52 episodes whereas there were 130 episodes, which
would seem to indicate that the intent was to open the show to
another player.”
Under the circumstances due to the two
contracts, the High Court said it cannot definitely say there is
exclusivity unless there is evidence such as expert witnesses
attesting to the practice in the industry, and other relevant
factors such as technical reasons.
“This is all the more so in light of the fact
that petitioner’s contract was verbal and no written memorandum of
its terms was presented. For this reason, the Court is constrained
to sustain the CA’s ruling that petitioner has failed to establish
its right to a writ of preliminary injunction.”
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