• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, Yesterday

We have had all sorts of content airing on streaming platforms: Network scripted entertainment, unscripted TV programming, TV news content, and now high-profile sports content.

No longer. In somewhat of a first for syndicated television, Sony Pictures Television, producer of the biggest original syndicated game shows -- “Jeopardy” and “Wheel of Fortune” -- has inked distribution deals with Hulu, Disney+ and Peacock.

Those streaming platforms will air episodes of those game shows -- like many broadcast prime-time TV entertainment series -- the next day after their original network airings beginning this September.

Those hosts -- Ken Jennings ("Jeopardy") and Ryan Seacrest (and Vanna White), ("Wheel of Fortune") -- will continue to appear on those streaming runs.

Why now? That's not exactly clear.

That said, this comes as a backdrop to Sony Pictures, which just lost a court case against CBS Television Distribution, the syndication arm of CBS. For many years CBS has been selling game shows to local TV stations.

Sony sued CBS for failure to maximize revenue from the shows and violating their distribution contract, as well as licensing the shows at below-market rates, which failed to maximize advertising revenue -- and because it entered into unauthorized licensing deals in Australia and New Zealand.

Beyond this, looking more broadly at the U.S. syndicated marketplace, original syndicated programming -- game shows, daytime talk shows, court and magazine programs -- may not among the most-viewed for loyal streaming viewers.

Core viewers of those game shows are around 60 years and older, for the most part -- those who watch gamers on local TV stations in late afternoon/early-evening time periods, perhaps just before or after their local TV news stations. News content, in general, also skews older.

Streaming platforms, by comparison, generally have younger average viewers -- typically 10 to 15 years younger than over-the-air linear TV schedules. One survey said nearly two-thirds of regular CTV viewers are in the 18-34 demographic.

One point to note here -- while they are not on streamers directly, viewers can find these shows indirectly via broadband-based virtual pay TV distributors -- YouTube TV or Hulu + Live TV, for example -- which offer live, local TV viewing access of the shows.

Still, for their part, Sony Pictures executives are excited to be on Hulu, Hulu on Disney+ and Peacock -- to gain “an even wider audience," a statement from Keith Le Goy, chairman of Sony Pictures Television says.

What does that mean exactly? Guessing we’ll find out soon.