First filed in April 2013, the lawsuit brought against the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) by Prospect Park Networks, LLC over soap operas “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” has been dismissed, court records show. As a result, rights to the soap operas have been returned to ABC.
In their claim at the time, Prospect Park alleged that ABC “has been breaking the licensing agreement and sabotaging Prospect Park’s efforts to continue ‘All My Children’ and ‘One Life to Live’ online.” The company initially asked for $25 million in monetary damages before the value was upped to $95 million following Prospect Park’s decision to amend the lawsuit with “a declaration that Prospect Park’s continued payment of the licensing fees under the Agreement is excused; that Prospect Park is entitled to an extension of the License Agreement; and that the term of the License Agreement is tolled, from the time of ABC’s breach until the breach is fully remedied.”
In response, ABC demanded a motion to strike that claim. “Here, Prospect Park is not asking this Court to resolve an unsettled question by interpreting the Agreement,” said the network. “Instead, it is doing the exact opposite: asking this Court to rewrite the contract to unsettle something that parties have already firmly determined — the term of the License.”
ABC filed a counter suit against PPN which was dismissed in October.
At this time, the URLs for the soaps — AllMyChildren.com and OneLifetoLive.com — continue redirecting to TOLN.com, the defunct home for PPN’s The OnLine Network.
Reps for ABC nor Prospect Park Networks has responded to a request for comment by Soap Opera Network.
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Now that the rights have reverted back to the network, fans are already hoping that ABC will decide to once again revive the defunct soap operas. Campaigns are already in force on such Facebook pages as Save AMC & OLTL, among others.