“We Presented A Concept Of A TV Show, You Stole It, Made It Your Own And We Are Suing You So Hard For It” KTN Put On The Spot Over Upcoming Reality TV Show
KTN’s upcoming reality show has been met by a major stumbling block even before it officially premiers!
Pillar Praise Production is suing KTN over copyright infringement of their kid’s reality show dubbed “Kids Can Sing.”
The production approached Ghafla! claiming KTN had ‘stolen’ their concept for “Kids Can Sing” to produce their own show dubbed “The Sing Out” which is yet to premier on KTN.
According to Pillar Praise Production, they approached KTN to pitch the idea about “Kids Can Sing” to have the show air on KTN. KTN promised to look for sponsors for the show but they didn’t get back to them, instead they came up with ‘The Sing Out’ which Pillar Praise Production claims is the same concept as ‘Kids Can Sing’.
The local production says “Kids Can Sing” was shot last year (complete season) adding that they had copyrighted the idea as literary work in 2014 and as audio visual in 2015.
A poster by Pillar Praise Production advertising “Kids Can Sing” in 2015
A copy of Copyright Certificate for “Kids Can Sing”
Three weeks after they pitched the idea at KTN, Pillar Praise Production were shocked to see a TV promo on KTN advertising for audition for the same concept.
The audition was held at Standard Group headquarters on Mombasa Road on 23rd July 2016.
KTN advertising poster for “The Sing Out”
Some of the kids who turned up at KTN for the audition of “The Sing Out”
“The Sing Out” judges Holy Dave and Jackie Mukirai
Pillar Praise Production proceeded to file a lawsuit against KTN after their attempts to contact the station over copyright infringement failed to bear fruits.
Ghafla! contacted the head of TV Production and Creative at KTN and she indeed confirmed the station was aware of the allegations being made by Pillar Praise Production.
She said KTN receives many unsolicited concepts and that they have always respected the efforts and creativity of individuals.
She made it clear KTN hadn’t infringed on any copyrighted material stating that most creative concepts or ideas have many commonalities, citing the case of “The Voice”, “Pop Idols” and “Got Talent”.
“It should be noted that KTN has previously had a very similar competition ‘My Kid Is A Superstar’. If at all, we relied on our very own conceptualisation and execution of the format. In addition, we’ve also had numerous singing talents in our long running Club Kiboko kids series.” The head of TV Production and Creative at KTN told Ghafla.
She further added that allegations by Pillar Praise Production were wrong and grossly unfair to all the young, creative producers they have internally at KTN who work hard to put out TV shows.
