BBC Worldwide has reportedly won its copyright infringement lawsuit against the Italian media company Mediaset over the format of Strictly Come Dancing.
According to the BBC’s lawsuit, Mediaset unlawfully copied the format of its popular show Strictly Come Dancing to develop its new ‘Baila!’ programme. This idea for this show was thought up by Mediaset in order to rival the Italian version of Strictly Come Dancing that has been aired on public broadcast channel Rai for around six years.
A number of characteristics were believed to be the same, although these were not disclosed when Rome judge Gabrielle Muscolo told Mediaset that it could not air ‘Baila!’ in its current format.
As a result of this decision, Mediaset was forced to postpone the premiere of ‘Baila!’ last week in order to make last minute changes. The company, which is likely to have professional indemnity insurance in place for cases such as this where copyright infringement is alleged, said:
“While Mediaset remains convinced that its programme is absolutely unique and original, Baila! will scrupulously observe the court imposed restrictions handed down by the civil court in Rome, confident that they will be rapidly overturned,”