A court ruling granted Sony permission on Thursday to handle the distribution of both “Wheel of Fortune” and “Jeopardy,” marking a significant setback for CBS, as they have been responsible for syndicating these profitable programs for many years.
In a ruling, Judge Kevin Brazile denied CBS the request for an injunction. He believed that Sony had strong grounds in their argument that CBS had breached their contractual duties.
According to the judge’s statement, it was within Sony’s decision-making power to end their distribution contracts by August 2024.
CBS intends to appeal immediately.
The statement issued by a representative from CBS Media Ventures indicates that the current decision is provisional, as it’s based on limited information rather than the final verdict of the entire case. They are optimistic that when all the facts are presented in court, they will emerge victorious. The judge in this instance acknowledged the potential harm leans towards CBS, so they intend to petition the higher court for a hold on the decision while their appeal is underway.
Should the decision hold, it would signify the termination of a partnership that traces back to the 1980s, during which these shows were jointly produced by Merv Griffin Enterprises and distributed by King World. Subsequently, Sony and CBS took over this contractual agreement upon their acquisitions. The distribution deal is speculated to bring in billions of dollars for CBS.
In October, Sony, who is responsible for producing the shows, filed a lawsuit against CBS, claiming that CBS had not secured the highest possible payments in their syndication agreements with local television stations. Sony contended that CBS was inappropriately grouping the popular shows with less successful ones owned by CBS, such as “The Hot Bench” and “The Drew Barrymore Show.” Furthermore, Sony accused CBS of failing to pay license fees on deals in New Zealand and Australia.
CBS argued back that Sony was inventing excuses to take over distribution. In a lawsuit filed in November, CBS claimed that Sony initially proposed a multimillion-dollar buyout, but filed the lawsuit only after CBS rejected the offer.
In his decision on Thursday, Brazile acknowledged the claims made by a former Vice President from CBS, Roxanne Pompa, who asserted that game shows took a secondary role to CBS-owned programming. Furthermore, Pompa also suggested that after the Viacom-CBS merger, these shows were treated with less importance.
Earlier, the judge issued a short-term injunction stopping Sony from assuming control over distribution. The case is still being heard in court.
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2025-04-10 22:16