ITV Studios wins $85m Pasapalabra payout as Spanish legal battle takes another turn

Pasapalabra now airs on Atresmedia’s Antena 3

The long-running legal battle surrounding Spanish gameshow Pasapalabra has taken another twist, with ITV Studios awarded €73.2m (US$84.9m) in damages from Mediaset España over the exploitation of the format without a licence.

The ruling, handed down by Madrid Provincial Court, found that Mediaset had used Pasapalabra – which is an adaptation of ITV Studios’ 1990s format The Alphabet Game – without the necessary rights between 2012 and 2019, the year Spain’s Supreme Court forced the broadcaster to pull the show from its schedules.

The decision is separate from, but closely linked to, another ruling concerning El Rosco, the iconic final round of Pasapalabra.

Spain’s Supreme Court upheld a 2022 judgment from Barcelona Provincial Court confirming Dutch company MC&F Broadcasting Production & Distribution as the intellectual property holder of El Rosco.

The court ruled that the segment, in which contestants answer questions linked to each letter of the alphabet arranged in a circle, demonstrates sufficient originality and creative development to qualify as a protected work.

The ruling prohibits its use without authorisation and upholds the compensation payment that was previously set at €50,000.

The El Rosco dispute dates back to the late 1990s. The game was originally created in 1998 under the title 21×100 by Reto Luigi Pianta and René Mauricio Loeb before rights were transferred to MC&F. The quiz mechanic was later incorporated into Italian format Passaparola, itself an adaptation of The Alphabet Game, before becoming part of Pasapalabra in Spain.

The rulings have immediate implications for Spanish broadcaster Atresmedia, whose network Antena 3 currently airs Pasapalabra. The Supreme Court confirmed that Antena 3 cannot continue exploiting El Rosco without securing rights from MC&F.

MediaForEurope (MFE), the parent company of Mediaset España, has said it will seek to annul the verdict handed down last week.

The Italy-based company argues the ruling does not adequately consider the recent decision by the Spanish Supreme Court on El Rosco, which recognised the Dutch company MC&F Broadcasting Production and Distribution as the holder of the intellectual property rights to the final test of the program.

According to MFE, the compensation set by the Madrid Court is based on the premise that El Rosco is an integral part of the British format licensed by ITV Studios, even though the Supreme Court has now concluded that the rights to that section belong to MC&F.

In a statement reported by EFE, the company argued that this is the “most interesting, attractive and recognizable” segment of the programme and that its exclusion should directly impact the economic calculation of the damage claimed by ITV Studios.

In that context, the group controlled by the Berlusconi family announced that it will evaluate “all appropriate legal initiatives”, including requesting the annulment of the enforcement proceedings closed in Madrid.