The TV show currently gets much of its viewership from illegal streams, but the show’s owner wants to change that.
What is the best streaming home for new episodes of “Jeopardy!”? That’s the exact question that Sony Pictures Television is trying to answer. The decades-old quiz show is still incredibly popular in the United States, but one of the biggest issues it currently faces is that it doesn’t have a next-day streaming partner to allow customers to watch episodes on demand. Sony knows that’s a challenge for fans of the show and is trying to change that conundrum at long last.
Key Details:
- More than 10% of “Jeopardy!” viewership comes from illegally uploaded episodes on sites like YouTube.
- Sony will be able to begin selling next-day streaming rights starting this fall.
- Hulu, Paramount+, Peacock, and Prime Video are all logical candidates to land the show.
Given the popularity of “Jeopardy!”, it may surprise some observers to learn that the show isn’t streaming anywhere currently. If you want to watch, you have to find it in syndication on channels like ABC, CBS, or NBC, and if you want to see a prior episode you’re probably out of luck if you didn’t record it via your DVR.
However, some devoted fans of the show have found ways to get around that. In an interview with Rolling Stone, current “Jeopardy!” showrunner Michael Davies said that 14% of the show’s viewership comes from episodes that have been illegally uploaded to YouTube.
Many of these viewers would likely watch legally if the show were available on a streaming service. The good news on that front is that Sony will be allowed to start selling next-day streaming rights to the show this fall.
“To protect Jeopardy!, we have to expand,” Davies said. “We can’t just leave it exactly where it is. We mustn’t change the format… but we have to expand or it’s going to be in trouble.”
There are several streaming services that make sense as streaming partners for “Jeopardy!” once the show is on the market. Hulu, Paramount+, and Peacock are sibling streamers of ABC, CBS, and NBC respectively, and all of those channels air the episodes across the country in syndication. Hulu might be the most likely of those destinations as the Disney-owned channel is the home of the quiz show’s primetime programming, including “Jeopardy! Masters,” which is available to stream on Hulu now.
Prime Video is another logical candidate, particularly since it already streams the follow-up series “Pop Culture Jeopardy!” and has plenty of cash available to bid on the rights. Then again, “Jeopardy!” could simply wind up on the biggest streamer of them all in Netflix.
Whichever service lands “Jeopardy!” will find a ready-made fanbase waiting in the wings for the show. The long wait to be able to stream it on-demand could be over soon, which could help it expand to new and younger fans going forward.
Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 10,000+ movies, TV shows, and Prime Originals like “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” “Jack Ryan,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “The Boys,” and more. Subscribers can also add third-party services like Max, Showtime, STARZ, and dozens more with Amazon Prime Video Channels. Prime Video also offers exclusive live access to NFL Thursday Night Football.
Prime Video is included with Amazon Prime for $14.99 per month ($139 per year), or can be purchased on its own for $8.99 per month.
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