WGA STRIKE UPDATE: Golden Globe Awards Up for Grabs for Others to Air
Hollywood Foreign Press Association Opens Golden Globe Awards 'Ceremony' Up to All Media
By Ben Grossman -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/11/2008 5:20:00 PM
The Golden Globe Awards newscast scheduled for Sunday, Jan. 13, is now up for grabs to anyone who wants to air it.
The change came following a disagreement between NBC and Dick Clark Productions, which wanted a seven-figure license fee from the network to cover the press conference.
"NBC wanted to have an exclusive three-hour broadcast special disguised as a news conference that would bar all other media, and yet was unwilling to pay a nominal license fee to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and Dick Clark Productions," Dick Clark Productions said in a statement. "The HFPA and Dick Clark Productions felt this arrangement was unfair and unacceptable and therefore opened up the event to all media."
The HFPA, which administers the awards, will now produce the scaled-down press conference.
NBC, which was to air the full Globes show, will still carry the presentation as an NBC News broadcast. Access Hollywood's Rob Silverstein will produce.
TV Guide Network already announced that it also will air the event.
The HFPA released the following statement: "After discussions with NBC, Hollywood Foreign Press Association president Jorge Camara today announced that the HFPA will have complete control of its 65th Annual Golden Globe Awards announcement that is scheduled to take place Sunday, Jan. 13 at 6 p.m. PST in the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton. Under the new arrangement, there will be no restrictions placed on media outlets covering the press conference."
The Writers Guild of America West, which threatened picket lines and caused the HFPA to downsize the three-hour gala affair, followed with a statement saying it would not picket the event: "In light of this change to the program, the WGA gave the HFPA our assurances that there would be no picket of their press conference on Sunday."
For full coverage of the strike, click here.
