In a year where perhaps the busiest and least vulnerable CBS employees are lawyers, the news that came down yesterday pretty much assured their job security for a while longer. DEADLINE’s Peter White succinctly reported the baseline facts:
The thorny legal issue over who gets to distribute long-running game shows Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune has an update.
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has granted a preliminary injunction to Sony Pictures Television in the case, effectively denying CBS’s bid to block the former from distributing these high-profile shows.
The court, led by LA Superior Court Judge Kevin C. Brazile, said it believes Sony had the right to terminate the distribution deals, noting that licensing agreements should be limited to a two-year period but some deals, particularly in Australia and New Zealand were for a “longer period of time”.
Sony terminated its distribution deal with CBS in August and later filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit that claimed the Paramount Global-owned broadcaster entered into unauthorized licensing deals for the shows and then paid itself a commission.
The machinations of what went on with these iconic American game shows in foreign English-speaking countries may have provided the impetus and, at least for now, the smoking gun that afforded them this victory. As we’ve previously mused, Sony’s TV division is now being run by an executive who came up through the ranks of international distribution, so he more than most knows what kinds of shenanigans goes on in Australia and New Zealand. I’m personally aware of a few high-leverage deals he and his underlings championed in those territories that would probably be seen as equally shady as the ones CBS cut that Judge Brazile took note of.
But it was the detail that THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER’s Winston Cho unveiled in his updated story from yesterday that hit far closer to home both geographically and personally that has at least moi convinced that Sony’s claims are, at bare minimum, grounded in reality:
CBS’ practice of bundling its shows for both licensing and advertising purposes when presenting them to broadcasters was the focus of the court’s ruling. Although Brazile concluded that this is likely “mostly permissible,” he said that it could be a conflict of interest because the bundle includes both CBS and Sony programming, which could undercut profits for Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. The shows are the most desired programming in “virtually any package,” the order stated,
Dale Woods, an affiliate station manager, testified that “negotiations with CBS for the Sony shows often included, at CBS’ insistence, conversations about other CBS programming” and that it was “well understood that CBS would only license Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! if we agreed” for the shows to be packaged with other CBS programming. He added, “We felt like we had to take the other CBS programming given the importance of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! I cannot stress enough the power of the Sony shows to a local station. Having the rights to broadcast these shows can quite literally make or break you.”
I didn’t know Dale Woods per se; his career trajectory in local broadcasting came after mine. But I know quite well the dynamics of the markets he’s held leadership positions in. Competitive and emotional battlegrounds like Des Moines, Nashville and, most recently, Louisville. He ran an overachieving FOX affiliate in Louisville that with the advent of Nielsen meters became fully competitive with its more entrenched rivals. The kind of station that could indeed move their needle enough with the acquisition of WHEEL and JEOPARDY!, old-skewing though they may be.
And it’s folks like Woods in markets like Louisville where the sales tactics CBS is being accused of are typically most prevalent. Having worked on both the buyer and seller side of a vertically integrated media monolith, I know full well that the deal-making in markets where the company owns stations are decided in higher-level meetings where corporate suits play Roman ediles and arbitrarily decide what shows will wind up where and for how much. Whomever gets to claim the “win” is largely dependent upon specific conditions in play at the time, and depending upon the year and the climate it can often be a coin flip.
And Cho further reported on an additional example of heavy-handiness that was entered into record that I can also personally attest not only happens often, but given the parties and timing involved is all the more likely to be true:
In 2019, CBS and Viacom struck a deal to recombine. The court pointed to ripple effects from this merger as evidence that CBS didn’t sufficiently try to maximize profits for the shows. Roxanne Pompa, a former CBS vice president, testified that she was told by network executive Lisa Kramer that Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! are “not shows the international formats team should primarily focus on ‘because we don’t take in 100 percent of the revenue.’” Notably, Pompa said, “Before the CBS-Viacom merger, my team always took care of production 100 percent from start to finish. We valued the relationship that we had with the Sony producers and technical teams … When the Viacom-side team took over some of this work, I saw that they didn’t have the same regard for the production process. For example, I noticed that they started production in other countries with no one staffing the production and were allowing production materials to be delivered before signature of a deal.”
If one wants to split hairs, one can see from Pompa’s LinkedIn that she indeed was a one-time Sony employee working at a much lower level in international sales and marketing. Could she have some loyalty to some of her former colleagues who are championing this? Perhaps. But under oath she shed light on the company she had far more responsibility with. And again, having been in rooms and meetings quite similar when companies took over seeking to score points with their nervous superiors, I completely relate to what Pompa claims became policy which, of course, wouldn’t sit all that well with Sony.
With all else going on in CBS’ world these days, it’s unsurprising that they’re doing all they can to throw water on the conflagration of headlines that hit yesterday. The tone they took via their in-house reporter Megan Cerullo was especially defiant:
CBS Media Ventures said that it would immediately appeal the court’s ruling on distribution rights for the two programs, which were created by Merv Griffin and which debuted in 1975.
“This is only a preliminary ruling based on partial evidence, not the outcome of the full case,” CBS Media Ventures said in a statement to CBS MoneyWatch. “We’re confident once all the evidence is heard at trial, we will prevail on the merits. In today’s ruling, the court itself recognized the balance of harm tips in CBS’ favor, so we will ask the appellate court for a stay pending our appeal.”
Based on the fact that JEOPARDY!’s history actually goes back to 1964–a fact that came to light as recently as two weeks ago when Sony celebrated that show’s anniversary with JeoparDAY!–it sure seems like Sony’s done a much better job with the level of attention to detail needed to prevail than CBS has. Maybe their more accomplished researchers are too busy with things like 60 MINUTES raw footage to properly contribute to this appeal.
There are researchers out there that I’m sure are as readily available to help CBS as Woods and Pompa were to help Sony. In this particular case, despite how badly I could use the work, it won’t be me. I’ve personally experienced what they claim CBSMV did. Good luck to them in providing enough concrete evidence to the contrary
Until next time…