Advanced Television

Lebanon Broadcasting wins Alwaleed lawsuit

August 10, 2015

By Chris Forrester

Lebanon’s LBC International TV has won a major lawsuit against Saudi Arabian billionaire prince Alwaleed Bin Talal.

An arbitration court in Paris has awarded LBCI full possession of its international portfolio of channels (LBC Europe, America, Australia, Africa and LBC Maghreb).

The Court’s decision additionally stipulated that Bin Talal shall waive his rights to the specified channels and hand them back to LBCI, and also to be responsible for all fees and expenses of the lawsuit.

The full terms of the Arbitration Court’s award state that LBC-I must pay Prince Alwaleed a nominal $1 for the full titles and ownership of the channel’s trademarks.

The dispute between the two media moguls has been running for some time, and involves the (disputed) ownership of the LBC station itself and its production arm.  Prince Alwaleed was alleged to owe some $17.3 million in back-payments to staff working at LBC which had itself filed for liquidation in 2012. Pierre el Daher, CEO at LBC-I has publicly alleged that LBC itself was the subject of a fraudulent liquidation.

At the time LBC was absorbed into Prince Alwaleed’s Rotana Holdings portfolio of music and film channels.

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