South Park creators Matt Stone (left) and Trey Parker discuss the video game South Park: The Fractured But Whole on stage at Ubisoft Conference E3 2015 at the Orpheum Theater on June 15, 2015 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)
The creators of “South Park” gave up a more than half-billion-dollar deal with HBO and its parent company in favor of inking an even more lucrative deal with Paramount to become a marquee offering on its streaming service, a lawsuit that Warner Bros .had filed claims in Manhattan.
HBO Max, whose parent company plaintiff is WarnerMedia Direct, says it outbid numerous competitors to sign a deal with South Park Digital Studios (SPDS) in 2019.
Warner Bros. claims that this $500 million deal, announced with much fanfare on Comedy Central’s website, earned them exclusive streaming rights to the series’ entire library, as well as three new seasons.
Then, the company claims, Paramount hatched a plan to lure the “South Park” franchise to its new streaming service — and circumvent the show’s contractual obligations through a “campaign of verbal trickery.”
“To accomplish this, the defendants used grammatical sleight of hand by characterizing new content as ‘movies,’ ‘films,’ or ‘events’ in order to circumvent SPDS’ contractual obligations,” the lawsuit reads.
The defendants are Paramount Global, South Park Digital Studios and MTV Entertainment Studios.
As of 2021, according to HBO, “South Park” has not delivered any of the 22-minute episodes for Season 24 promised under the agreement. Earlier that year, Paramount announced the launch of its streaming service.
Less than six months after the launch of Paramount+, an executive discussed a plan “to fuel the platform through South Park,” saying, “[f]Ranching marquee content like South Park… is at the heart of [their] Strategy to continue growing Paramount+,” the lawsuit reads.
Warner Bros. says that MTV, Paramount’s indirect subsidiary, announced a deal with “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone on August 21, 2021.
“As Stone put it publicly, ‘We’ve got your bloody money now,'” the lawsuit reads.
For Warner Bros., the deal depended on a rhetorical signature to differentiate Paramount’s content from HBO’s exclusive content.
“Specifically, MTV publicly announced that as part of the Paramount+ deal, 14 ‘made-for-streaming movies’ (as opposed to ‘episodes’ or ‘events’) would premiere on Paramount+, beginning with two ‘movies’ a year 2021.” Lawsuit alleges.
But Warner Bros. claims that these “movies” are “substantially similar” to the “pandemic specials” that were made available to HBO as licensed content.
“All four episodes featured the iconic characters from South Park’s previous 23 seasons, covered similar topics (COVID), and had similar running times (approximately 50-60 minutes per episode),” the lawsuit reads.
“Incredibly, this was not the defendants’ only duplication of post-COVID content,” it said. “When MTV and Paramount+ announced the post-COVID content, they initially referred to the episodes as ‘movies.’ However, when WB pointed out that exploitation of film sequels to South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut required WB’s written consent under the 1998 agreement, to the best of its ability, MTV, in coordination with Paramount and SPDS, changed its characterization of the post- COVID content from ‘movies’ to ‘events’.”
These included “oversized” pandemic specials titled “The Streaming Wars Part 1” and “The Streaming Wars Part 2.”
Warner Bros. is seeking more than $200 million in damages for five counts of alleged breach of contract claims.
Paramount did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.
Read the lawsuit below: