Sony strikes streaming deals for Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune amid legal spat with CBS

The 42nd season of Jeopardy! will start streaming in September

Sony Pictures Television has struck multi-year co-exclusive streaming deals with NBCUniversal’s Peacock and Disney’s Hulu for Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, the gameshows at the centre of its bitter legal fight with CBS.

Under the agreements, Peacock, Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ will have national next-day rights to both gameshows, marking the first time in-season syndicated episodes will be made available on a national US streaming service.

The streaming deals will start in September, with Jeopardy! in its 42nd season and Wheel of Fortune in its 43rd.

Sony’s announcement of the deals comes after a judge last week ruled that Paramount-owned CBS can continue to distribute the gameshows for the duration of the legal proceeding, which began last year.

However, it appears that streaming rights fall outside the agreement between Sony and CBS, allowing the former to strike pacts with Peacock and Hulu.

The legal dispute began in late October when Sony filed a lawsuit claiming CBS had been “egregiously undercutting the value and profitability of [Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!] in favour of its own self-interest.”

Sony alleges that CBS has “pocketed millions in distribution fees from unauthorised deals, licensed the shows domestically well below market value and favoured its wholly owned shows in advertising sales and distribution,” in addition to firing many of the employees and teams that carry out those functions.

CBS counter-sued the following month with a claim that Sony was trying to “escape” the companies’ current deal. “Sony is attempting to obtain in court what it could not get at the bargaining table: the rights to the series for free, by finding any excuse it can muster,” said CBS in its countersuit in late November.

Both Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! have been under the Sony umbrella since 1994, when the company acquired the gameshows’ original producer, Merv Griffin Enterprises. Eleven years before that, Merv Griffin Enterprises signed a long-term deal with production and syndication company King World, which was subsequently acquired by CBS in 1999.

“We are thrilled to bring America’s favourite game shows to an even wider audience on Hulu, Hulu on Disney+ and Peacock,” said Keith Le Goy, chairman of Sony Pictures Television.

“Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune are two of the most successful game shows in television history and we look forward to giving fans the best possible streaming access to our shows this fall.”