"Sindh High Court on Friday restrained a local TV channel from airing the “Pakistan Idol” programme in a Rs.50 million lawsuit filed by M/s Independent Media for injunction on its franchise right.
The plaintiff submitted that it has acquired franchise right to air the localized version of the programme “Pakistan Idol” from its owner Fremantle Media for broadcast in Pakistan.
The plaintiff’s counsel Mohammad Ali Mazhar contended that his client has invested millions of rupees to acquire the right to air this programme, which is also being aired in 43 other countries, but the defendant encroached such mark and idea which was actually the plaintiff’s right.
The counsel expressed the fear that the defendant (Fortune Marketing) was trying to infringe such rights and it appeared that it may first air the program on August 13. He sought interim injunction restraining the defendant from telecasting the program in question.
SHC’s single bench granted interim injunction restraining the defendant from telecasting the program till next date of hearing."
- The News, August 13th 2007
This explains why there is no Pakistan Idol on DinTV anymore. It is the first time when there is a fight over rights airing a show in Pakistan. GEO TV owns the right to air "American Idol" in Pakistan but it is not yet confirmed if it really owns the rights to Pakistani Idol. I tried to find a contact from the parent company, FremantleMedia but they do not have an email address on their website. Din version of Pakistan Idol is very sloppy. The judges are rarely known celebrities and they do not have that Idol ambiance.
There can be an ideal judgement for this case, GEO TV gets the primary airing rights where as DIN repeats the program on its network. I hope Pakistan Idol makes a successful series as Survivor was a total burnout.
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