Standing on the Shoulders of Idols: The Vexed Question of the Legal Protection of Formats in the Global Television Market

摘要

The commercial success of shows such as Survivor, Big Brother, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? and, of course, Pop Idol in their markets of origin has driven very significant demand for licensed country-specific versions of such shows. Predictably, that same success has led to some television production companies and networks developing very similar programmes to these successful formats. Given the growing practice of "cloning" successful shows, the question of whether (and to what extent) television show formats are capable of being protected from plagiarism is one that has received significant attention in recent years. Nor, in such an environment, is it surprising, given the great commercial value of a truly successful television format, that there have been calls from those in the industry and others to legislate to provide greater protection for them.