Comcast’s Sky is suing Warner Bros. Discovery for “multiple material breaches” of a 2019 deal around the co-funding and co-production of exclusive premium TV shows.
The suit, filed Friday in New York federal court, argues that WBD was obligated to present Sky with at least four shows per year in 2021, 2022 and 2023, but that the company “fell far short of that mark, in certain years offering barely a single qualifying series while also withholding critical, contractually required information necessary for Sky to evaluate any potential options that it did receive.”
“This misconduct has deprived Sky of its bargained-for opportunity to co-fund, co-produce, and subsequently exploit exclusively in U.K. and European territories all manner of top-end Warner content,” the complaint adds. “If all that were not enough, Warner has now even brazenly denied Sky its right to partner on Warner’s highly valuable decade-long, tentpole television series adapting J.K. Rowling’s iconic Harry Potter novels, set to premiere in 2026 or 2027. Instead, Warner has largely disregarded the parties’ agreement and sought to keep the Harry Potter content for itself so that Warner can use it as the cornerstone of the launch of its Max streaming service in Europe.”
Under the terms of the agreement, Warner is required to offer Sky no less than four Max original series that meet certain contractually specified qualifications every calendar year from 2021 to 2025, each of which Sky would have the option to co-fund and co-produce. Each series must be formally submitted as soon as Max is prepared to order a first season and must include all relevant series information.
Sky is then required to select at least two series per year from the qualifying offers, but has discretion to pick any two and is entitled, at its sole option, to select any number of series beyond the contractual minimum, according to the complaint.
The co-funding agreement also states Warner will assign Sky all media rights for each series in the geographic territory covered by the contract, which includes the U.K. and multiple countries in Europe, for a period of 20 years from delivery of the last episode of each season in a series. Sky is also entitled to “retain all revenue generated from exploitation of [these media rights].”
Sky argues that the “Harry Potter” series meets all the criteria for a qualifying series under the co-funding agreement, including being one hour in length per episode, intended to be multi-season, produced by Warner Bros. Television for a premiere on Max and “ordered” in 2023. But it argues that Warner “did not and continues to refuse to” submit it for the company’s consideration.
“Rights to the ‘Harry Potter’ Series constitute a potentially transformational asset for which no reasonable substitute is available. Based on a franchise with well-established, enduring, and incomparably enthusiastic appeal for hundreds of millions —if not billions — of readers, viewers, and all manner of other devotees since the first novel’s publication more than twenty-five years ago, the Series is widely expected to propagate what is already an unparalleled cultural phenomenon into a whole new generation,” Sky continued. “Any company that the ‘Harry Potter’ Series called home would undoubtedly reap untold benefits not solely in terms of the extraordinary concrete revenues and average revenue per user (‘ARPU’) expected to flow from its exploitation but also goodwill, brand accretion, reputational enhancement, and competitive market standing.”
The suit alleges that Sky faces, at the least, hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of lost revenue that it would have generated through exclusive exploitation of co-funded series if not for Warner’s breaches. It also says Sky will suffer in the form of “reputational harm, loss of brand equity, damage to subscriber and potential subscriber goodwill, and reduced competitive standing.”
“It is clear that Sky can wait no longer wait for Warner to remediate breaches of an Agreement that it plainly has no intention of honoring. Through this action, Sky now seeks redress for substantial injuries,” the company stated.
Sky is seeking an order from a judge that would require WBD to pay unspecified compensatory damages and submit the “Harry Potter” series for consideration in accordance with the 2019 co-funding agreement’s terms.
A Warner Bros. Discovery spokesperson told TheWrap that the HBO and Max licensing agreements expire at the end of 2025 and that the lawsuit a “baseless attempt” by Sky and Comcast to try and gain leverage in its negotiations for programming beyond that date.
“We know HBO branded shows are critical to Sky, as evidenced by their desire for over a year to find a way to renew our agreements, and this lawsuit makes it clear that Sky is deeply concerned about the viability of its business were it to lose our award-winning content,” the spokesperson added. “WBD will vigorously defend itself from this unfounded lawsuit as we move forward undeterred with plans to launch Max, including the new HBO Harry Potter series, in the UK and other European markets in 2026.”
HBO has said that the series will be based on the seven Harry Potter books written by J.K Rowling, retelling the story of the young wizards in a new way with an all-new lead cast. The plan is to adapt one of the seven books from the series per TV season. Francesca Gardiner and Mark Mylod are the showrunner and director duo for the series, respectively. Executive producers on the series include Rowling, David Heyman, Neil Blair and Ruth Kenley-Letts of Brontë Film and TV.
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