CBC Story Divas dial NTV for dollars WebPosted Nov 3 2004 03:42 PM NST ST. JOHN'S — NTV owner Geoff Stirling says an honest mistake led his network to air the Our Divas Do Broadway production without permission – or payment last month. The Divas show at Mile One Stadium on Oct. 16 raised more than $100,000 for the Autism Society of Newfoundland and Labrador. Geoff Stirling NTV aired much of the concert late that evening, outraging performers who feel they should have been paid for their work. Stirling says NTV, which shot the concert for news coverage, did not intend to broadcast more than small parts of the show. "It was a big mistake," Stirling said from his Arizona home. "We all thought we were doing everybody a big favour." "Taking it and airing it really didn't do a favour to anybody," says singer Kelly-Ann Evans, one of the performers in the show. Evans says she and other performers should at the very least have been consulted about the broadcast. Calling the airing of the show an "accident," Stirling says there were misunderstandings between the network and the organizers. The organizers of the concert paid one-time stage rights to songwriting publishing companies, which did not include broadcast rights. As a media sponsor of the event, NTV and sister companies OZ-FM Newfoundland Herald heavily promoted the concert. Stirling says the broadcast followed from its steady promotions. Some of the performers are expected to bill NTV for performance fees. NTV says it will deal with those invoices as it receives them. "The last thing we need is a problem like this," he says. "It'll certainly never happen again, I'll tell you." back