DCP's Shapiro details deal strategy

The trial over rights to the Golden Globe Awards on Thursday delved into the dealmaking strategy deployed by the head of Dick Clark Prods. in 2010 as he secured a long-term rights deal with NBC. In proceedings in a federal courtroom in Los Angeles, Mark Shapiro, CEO of Dick Clark Prods., admitted that he told NBC's Marc Graboff that he needed the approval of the HFPA to secure a rights deal with the network when he knew that he did not. Shapiro called his statements to Graboff a "negotiating strategy," one he carried throughout the year even though he never told the HFPA that there was a new deal with NBC until it was actually signed. "It was not entirely accurate," Shapiro said. "I did not need approval from HFPA." DCP negotiated a deal with NBC that would give the broadcaster rights to the Globes through 2018. The HFPA sued DCP in November 2010, claiming that its longtime producer made the pact without its permission. But DCP contends it never had to, citing an "extensions clause" in a 1993 pact with the HFPA giving it the option to produce the show in perpetuity as long as it continued to secure the Peacock Network to broadcast the show. But Shapiro said that as DCP started negotiations with NBC in 2010 he faced obstacles if he was to dramatically increase the amount that NBC paid for the show. HFPA members had pressed him to seek at least $20 million, double the license fee it was earning. For one, ratings were not as great as they were before the 2008 WGA strike, which forced the Globes to abandon the show and instead hold a press conference announcing the winners. But Shapiro said he also worried that if NBC was to pay so much, it would ask for much more in return, including rights giving it the ability to change the date of the show and even its locale, as one suggestion had been to move it to Universal City. So Shapiro told NBC multiple times that he needed the HFPA's approval, as the negotiating strategy was to give "a sense that I had a higher authority to answer to" and was limited in what the exec had the power to negotiate away. "I did believe that (Graboff) believed me, that the negotiating strategy was working," Shapiro said. As the deal dragged on, Shapiro told NBC that he faced a "deadline" to get it done. In fact, there was no such thing. But he said there was "urgency" to do a deal, as Comcast was about to take over the network and NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker wanted to land a new Globes pact as part of his "legacy." Shapiro said he secured a deal averaging $21.5 million per year. He said he was not aware that the HFPA was seeking another network on its own, and that then-HFPA prexy Philip Berk (now chairman) met with CBS' Les Moonves to discuss moving the show to that network. Contact Ted Johnson at ted.johnson@variety.com