A California appeals court has paused a preliminary injunction issued by a lower court last week that gave Sony Pictures Television clearance to seek out better distribution deals for its game shows “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune.”
The injunction is part of a lawsuit filed by Sony against Paramount Global and CBS Media Ventures last October, which argued the broadcaster breached its distribution contract by improperly licensing the shows to third parties, among other things.
For years, CBS Media Ventures — which previously operated as CBS Television Distribution and King World, among other names — have licensed the two game shows to local television stations in the United States since the late 1990s as part of its broadcast syndication business.
Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune attract some of the highest TV ratings among syndicated programs, with more than 8 million households tuning in to watch one or both game shows.
In its lawsuit, Sony says CBS violated its contract by inking long-term syndication deals with broadcasters in Australia and New Zealand. Foreign syndication deals are limited to two years under its current contract, Sony affirmed, but CBS went beyond that term and refused to hand over its licensing commissions.
The lawsuit comes at a time when Sony is hoping to explore additional distribution deals with other platforms, including streaming services, for both shows.
Past episodes of Jeopardy have been licensed to Hulu and Paramount’s Pluto TV under separate agreements, and an audio simulcast of Jeopardy is available on TuneIn. But Sony wants to go broader than those deals, seeking a new home for both shows that can capitalize on the consumer shift away from traditional pay TV platforms — where many broadcast channels are distributed — in favor of streaming services like Netflix and Prime Video.
In February, the New York Times shed more light on why Sony wants to move away from the distribution of both shows on broadcast: The average Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune audience skews older, while streaming consumers tend to be younger and more-affluent, and streaming platforms have indicated a willingness to sign over large checks for rights to valuable programming.
The lawsuit is one way for Sony to get out of its broadcast distribution obligations with CBS, if it can prove the network violated its agreements. Last week, a court in Los Angeles gave Sony a preliminary injunction that allowed it to pursue better deals, effectively returning distribution rights back to the company.
The appellate court’s decision to stay the preliminary injunction puts that plan on indefinite hiatus while the broader lawsuit between Sony and CBS plays out. For now, that means new episodes of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune will remain exclusive to the broadcast stations that have licensing agreements with CBS Media Ventures.
