Warner Bros. Discovery Sues Paramount Global Over ‘South Park’ Streaming Rights

thewrap.com:

,” HBO Max said in a statement to TheWrap.Warner Bros. Discovery claims that Paramount’s priorities “changed drastically” upon the launch of Paramount+ in 2021, resulting in a “multi-year scheme to unfairly take advantage” of the former conglomerate by breaching its agreement and “stealing its content.”Per the 2019 agreement, where Warner/HBO outbid others in a competitive situation to garner the exclusive rights to the series, the company acquired the series’ entire catalog (23 seasons at the time) in addition to three new installments, totaling more than 300 episodes.

Based on the representations made in the deal, WBD alleges that Paramount Global promised exclusivity in hosting all 333 episodes — the 303 existing at the time, in addition to the 30 that would be added across the three new seasons — and that sharing rights was a “non-starter.” However, as a result of the pandemic, Paramount delayed filming on Season 24, instead producing two nearly hour-long COVID-themed specials that released initially on Comedy Central and were later put on HBO Max.

Because of the specials’ longer runtime, WBD paid double the typical single-episode rate. The matter was further complicated upon the entry of a new deal in 2021 between the creators and Paramount subsidiary MTV worth $900 million to produce 14 original movies for Paramount+.

At the time, the series was also renewed through Season 30.South Park Digital Studios, Paramount and MTV, WBD alleges, “engaged in a campaign of verbal trickery designed to circumvent” the original agreement, using “grammatical sleight-of-hand” to characterize the new content as “movies,” “films” or “events” instead of episodes.