A U.S. District Court jury in Riverside on Wednesday said that Walt Disney Co. should pay a United Kingdom company $269 million in a royalty dispute over the hit TV game show, “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.”

The company, Celador International Ltd., in 1999 sold the U.S. rights to the game show, which originated in the U.K. The company filed suit in 2004 alleging that the Burbank media giant’s ABC and Buena Vista Television operations concealed profits through a “complex web of self-dealing transactions” in order to avoid paying licensing fees. The suit finally went to trial in June.

Celador claimed it was owed 50 percent of revenue from airings of the show in the U.S., plus a share of merchandising sales tied to the show. Disney argued that Celador received a flat producers’ fee per episode, and that there was nothing unusual about how rights to any profits were divided.

The show gives contestants a chance at a million-dollar prize if they correctly answer a series of trivia questions, with an emphasis on suspense rather than speed. It became a U.S. ratings hit by 2000 under its first host, Regis Philbin, who popularized the catch-phrase, “Is that your final answer?” It still airs in syndication five times a week and is hosted by Meredith Vieira.

In a terse statement late Wednesday, Disney said, “We believe this verdict is fundamentally wrong and will aggressively seek to have it reversed.”

Disney shares closed up $1.42, or 4.5 percent, to $33.14 on the New York Stock Exchange prior to the verdict’s announcement. Shares were down less than a percent in after-market trading.