Shine to Sue Channel Five’s Owners

LONDON: Elisabeth Murdoch’s Shine Group is said to be planning legal action against Channel Five’s new owner, Richard Desmond’s Northern & Shell, over payment for the summer entertainment series Don’t Stop Believing.

British press reports indicate that Shine Group has hired lawyers to file suit over an unpaid invoice for the talent show, which was commissioned prior to Five’s sale. There are other production firms that are said to have similar gripes with the British broadcaster, the Guardian reports. A Shine spokesperson told the British paper: "Northern & Shell has a reputation for taking an overtly aggressive stance towards its suppliers. While this may have been effective for them in the past, it is not acceptable within the U.K.’s independent TV production sector. Shine cannot tolerate a new owner of a public-service broadcaster reneging on contract commitments made by Five’s previous owner, RTL, and has instructed Reed Smith to use all legal recourse to recover the near million pound debt."

The Shine spokesman added: "Shine is fortunate to be one of the U.K.’s most successful creative companies, and able to stand up to Five’s new owners throwing their weight around, [but] for smaller companies, backbone of our creative economy, this behavior threatens their very survival. Shine is therefore offering support to independent makers threatened with insolvency by Northern & Shell’s refusal to pay overdue bills."