(FT) -- Walt Disney has lost a long-running court case against the UK creator of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, with a jury in a Calfornia court awarding Celador Entertainment damages of $270m following a dispute over profits from the hit game show.
The defeat in a battle that lasted six years is a blow to Disney, which plans to appeal against the ruling. It said the verdict was "fundamentally wrong", adding that it would "seek to have it reversed".
But Paul Smith, the chairman of Celador Entertainment, which used to own the series, said: "To have succeeded where most others wouldn't have dared to tread is the greatest achievement. We took on a giant company and we won".
Celador is the original producer and owner of the programme and sold the US rights to Disney's ABC network in 1998. The show became a runaway success, topping the ratings for several years.
A 1999 e-mail from Michael Eisner, Disney's then chief executive, which was submitted at the trial, said the programme was as important to ABC's fortunes as the group's rights to screen American football.
But a dispute arose over Celador's share of the profits generated by the show.
Mr Smith told the Financial Times Celador was entitled to a 50 per cent share of profits but its payments from Disney were much lower than expected.
"We investigated and believed we were being defrauded," he said. "We discussed it with Disney amicably to try and get to a conclusion there was money oweing us that had not been paid".
When a settlement could not be reached, the group launched legal action in 2004.
Disney argued in court that it had upheld its contractual obligations and Celador had structured the deal to get more money upfront, leaving Disney with the risks of producing and distributing the programme.
While the case continued, Celador sold the rights to Millionaire to Two Way Traffic, a Dutch media company later acquired by Sony.
