Nigerian legal firm, Remedium Law Partners, has demanded the sum of £1m from a United Kingdom-based cable television station, Sky TV UK, as compensation for copyright infringement of a TV programme titled “Urban Kitchen”.
The law firm also accused Solution Media and InfoTech Limited/Hi-Impact TV of fraudulently broadcasting “Urban Kitchen” without due authorisation and permission from producer of the content and demanded the sum N100m as compensation for copyright infringement.
According to an official letter addressed to Prince Adeyanju Lipede, CEO of Solution Media and InfoTech Limited/Hi-Impact TV, and Mr Jeremy Darroch, CEO of Sky UK Limited, signed by Rockson Igelige, a Principal Partner of Remedium Law Partners, Solution Media and InfoTech Limited/Hi-Impact TV started airing the programme while it had not concluded agreement with Sate Television for the authorised broadcast.
The letter also specified that while the agreement for the authorised broadcast of “Urban Kitchen” ought to be within Nigeria only, Solution Media and InfoTech Limited/Hi-Impact, which is also registered in the UK, fraudulently extended broadcast of the content to the United Kingdom where Sky TV UK with millions of viewers globally has been airing the TV programme without the consent of the producer, Sate Television. Remedium Law Partners also demanded the sum of £250,000 from Solution Media and InfoTech UK Limited as compensation for copyright violation of the said TV programme.
A 21-day deadline was given to both Solution Media and InfoTech Limited/Hi-Impact TV, Sky TV UK as well as Solution Media and InfoTech UK Limited to comply with the demands or be prepared to face legal action.
The letter dated 18th May, 2020 reads in part, “Our client informed us that on 25th February, 2020, one Mr. Andrew Ohio, acting on behalf of your organisation, Solution Media and InfoTech Limited, owners and/or operators of Hi-Impact Television, contacted them to express interest in their programme, ‘Urban Kitchen.’
“On 27th February, 2020, our client forwarded a term sheet containing their conditions for a license agreement, stating among others the following: that the programme would consist of twenty-six (26) episodes of thirty minutes duration each; the license fee per episode would be eighty dollars ($80), making a total of two thousand and eighty dollars ($2,080); Nigeria would be the only broadcast territory; and that the programme was to be delivered to Hi-Impact Television for the express purpose of broadcasting or airing within seven (7) days payment via Wetransfer, an online document exchange medium.
“Following your request for preview copies for the purpose of ascertaining their quality and suitability for broadcast, our client released the programme to you through your said agent, Mr. Ohio, doing so at Mr. Ohio’s insistence by merely copying the episodes from his computer hard-drive into a portable USB flash drive or electronic storage device.
“While waiting for the formalisation of the agreement, it came to the knowledge of our client that Hi-Impact Television had started airing ‘Urban Kitchen’ on or before 2nd April, 2020, not only in Nigeria, which is the specified broadcast territory in the terms of the proposed contract, but also in the United Kingdom through Sky TV, a cable television company that reaches millions of viewers globally.
“Our client did not at anytime give permission, authorisation or consent to Hi-Impact Television to broadcast Urban Kitchen, whether in Nigeria or anywhere else. Note that even though on 2nd March, 2020, your Head of Programmes, Abiola Adelanwa, signed a unilaterally altered version of the draft agreement, our client declined to counter-sign it. Moreover, they had not paid the agreed price and our client has not delivered the episodes for the purpose of broadcast.”
Remedium Law Partners also demanded an immediate stop of any further airing of “Urban Kitchen” until the formalisation of an agreement with Sate TV, producer of the TV programme and payment of an agreed Nigerian and UK prices for all twenty-six (26) episodes of the programme have been duly made.
Meanwhile, Nas Ogunsakin of Abdullahi Ibrahim and Company has on behalf of Hi-Impact TV warned Mr. Dauda Omoluku, CEO of Sate Media Limited to desist from annoying their client because it has done no wrong. It described the allegations against Hi-Impact TV as baseless.
While responding, however, Igelige said Ogunsakin was misinformed by his client.
He added that there was neither formal agreement signed nor was permission given by his client, Dauda Omoluku, to grant license to Hi-Impact TV to broadcast ‘Urban Kitchen’ in Nigeria or anywhere else.
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