Golden Globes picked up by Dick Clark Productions’ owning company, Hollywood Reporter

The Golden Globes, aka Hollywood Foreign Press Association, have finalized a longstanding deal with Eldridge Industries to take them over.

Eldridge is a corporate name for companies owned by Todd Boehly, who also owns MRC, the entity that owns Dick Clark Productions, the company that produces the Golden Globes for NBC. MRC is also a partner of Penske Media, owner of The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard.

When the HFPA collapsed two years ago over diversity and financial practices, Boehly — which had previously acquired Dick Clark Productions — made the offer to acquire the HFPA and the Globes. It sounds like a conflict of interest, but it also makes sense. The Globes are more of a television production than a legitimate awards entity. If Boehly can straighten out their cruder aspects, he can own the Globes and produce them.

Eldridge – who looks set to make agricultural chemicals – says he will “create a new private entity to manage his Golden Globes assets and preserve his charitable and philanthropic programs in a separate not-for-profit entity”.

The Globes already operates with two 501 c3 foundations under the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Since they were paid tens of millions of dollars in licensing fees by NBC, the HFPA has been very charitable over the years so that they can maintain their nonprofit status. Usually around this time every summer they would announce a bunch of grants and donations with a luncheon at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

According to a press release sent on PR Newswire and not by a private publishing company:

“The proposal was proposed by Eldridge Industries LLC (“Eldridge”), a global company that invests in a variety of industries, including insurance, asset management, technology, sports, media, real estate and The plan involves the creation of a new private company, which would acquire all intellectual property rights to the Golden Globes and be empowered to oversee the professionalization and modernization of the Golden Globe® Awards.

“The transition will include staff development and a leadership team to lead the new organization. Additional Golden Globes® voters will also be added to increase the size and diversity of voters available for the annual awards.

There’s a lot of gibberish here. They even put together a three-person panel to assess diversity at the HFPA. The fact is that the HFPA has always been diverse in that it had members from many different countries. It just didn’t include African Americans or black people from those countries. They also weren’t particularly interested in black movies or actors.

All the gibberish is designed to bring NBC back on board for a Golden Globes show next winter. Since the Critics Choice Association took Sunday, Jan. 15, for its show on The CW (and CBS would have to pick it up if they were smart), the Globes could air a week earlier on Jan. 8. But that requires not just NBC’s approval, but the cooperation of studios and publicists. Many of them are just as happy not to have to deal with HFPA, period.

So stay tuned to see if Boehly’s influence as co-owner of The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard will be enough to draw everyone in. It can work very well. Studios, in particular, want the added value of “Golden Globe nominees” on ads over Christmas, so they can acquiesce and the awards show — which is admittedly fun — could return this winter.