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Banijay, Fremantle settle All Against 1 case

Banijay Group and FremantleMedia have settled their legal dispute involving the format All Against 1.

Nordisk Film TV Denmark’s interactive gameshow All Against 1

C21 broke news of the dispute at Mipcom last year after FremantleMedia’s Tel Aviv-based prodco Abot Hameiri Productions (AHP) claimed All Against 1 was a copy of its own show Are You Smarter Than The Crowd?, now known as The Best of All.

AHP, which makes The X Factor and Survivor in Israel, said it had pitched Are You Smarter Than The Crowd? to the France-based international production group in 2014.

The case then appeared to be heading to court after FremantleMedia said in November it was claiming copyright infringement against Banijay, with the latter subsequently confirming it would counter sue.

Both sides have now backed down, however, agreeing the two formats are original and can exist as separate entities. In a statement, AHP and Banijay said the legal dispute between the parties had been resolved.

“Abot Hameiri and Banijay have acknowledged and agreed that Banijay’s All Against 1 and Abot Hameiri’s Best of All are original formats which can co-exist independently. Banijay and Abot Hameiri each look forward to bringing their distinctive and successful shows to further markets in the near future.”

Banijay had previously said it “strongly repudiated the allegations” over the format, created through a collaboration between Nordisk Film TV Denmark, Nordisk Film TV Norway and Norwegian public broadcaster NRK.

The prodco had been counter-claiming against AHP “for a declaration of non-infringement and damages for their attempt to damage Banijay’s format and current and potential sales.”

Sales of the format continued despite Fremantle claiming that broadcasters who proceeded with local versions would be liable had the copyright infringement case been secured.

DR1 in Denmark ordered a second season of the show while Nelonen in Finland and NRK in Norway have also commissioned new episodes.

FremantleMedia said AHP only discovered the existence of All Against 1 in August and contacted the production giant at the start of September to raise concerns, which were not addressed.

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