Tommy Fleming awarded €150k following illegal TV broadcast

'SET BACK' Tommy Fleming pictured at the West Coast Hotel, Westport, in 2015. Pic: Conor McKeown


Well-known singer Tommy Fleming has been awarded €150,000 worth of damages after a High Court judge ruled he had suffered ‘a serious setback’ following  unauthorised broadcasts of his ‘Voice of Hope DVD’ on television station Irish TV.
The singer, his wife and manager Tina Mitchell Fleming, and their company TF Productions were awarded the sum against the broadcaster, which is currently in liquidation.
They had sued Irish TV after the station broadcast a promotional DVD sent out by the singer in relation to his 2004 recording Voice of Hope under the title the ‘Tommy Fleming Musical Extravaganza’. The broadcasts occurred in December 2014.
In his judgment delivered last week, Mr Justice Paul Gilligan said he was satisfied Mr Fleming and Mrs Fleming had suffered damage and loss due to the copyright infringement.
He said the singer ‘has suffered a serious set back to his entertainment career’ and had been ‘undermined’ by the unauthorised broadcasts by Irish TV.
The judge said the Flemings were entitled to €100,000 by way of damages for ‘infringement of intellectual property rights of which they are the owners’.
In addition their company TF Productions was entitled to €50,000 damages as a contribution to the money it expended on minimising its losses. The judge also awarded the three plaintiffs their legal costs against the defendants. Irish TV, which had operated from Westport Industrial Park and broadcasted a 24-hour channel on Sky, Eir and free-to-air services, did not contest the application. The court heard that the station had, in correspondence before its liquidation, said it believed it had permission to broadcast the show.
In his evidence to the court earlier this year, Mr Fleming said the station never had his permission to broadcast ‘Voice of Hope’. He said he learned about the broadcast from a friend and said he would never have used the term ‘extravaganza’ in relation to his work. That word he said meant ‘circus’. He said he had been damaged because ‘Voice of Hope’ had been broadcast on a small channel with low ratings. This had damaged his ability to be featured on major broadcasters. While Mr Fleming accepted that he, his wife and their company may not get much out of any damages award against a firm in liquidation, he said he had to proceed with his action because the case centered around what was their work.