The legal battle between Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global over streaming rights to “South Park” doesn’t show any signs of stopping. Warner Bros. Discovery has filed to have Paramount’s partial motion to dismiss the case tossed out of court. Paramount along with show creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, were seeking to disperse the $200 million lawsuit all together.
“Defendants’ Motion has the dubious distinction of trying to downplay while simultaneously highlighting the very misconduct which forced Plaintiff to file this suit,” a statement from Warner Bros. Discovery reads. “The reality is that Defendant South Park Digital Studios agreed that Plaintiff’s HBO Max streaming platform would be the exclusive destination for consumers looking to stream new episodes of the popular comedy series South Park. Defendants came to regret having granted these exclusive streaming rights to Plaintiff when Paramount Global launched its own streaming platform, Paramount+.”
All of this stems from a deal made back in 2019 where WBD owned HBO Max (now Max) paid $500 million for the streaming rights to all past episodes and three future seasons. At the time, Paramount’s only streaming service was CBS All Access, which was still trying to find a foothold in the robust [now oversaturated] streaming market. Selling the streaming right to “South Park” for some quick cash didn’t seem like it would be a huge deal.
The issue arose when Paramount found a loophole in the contract that allowed them to make movies or/specials for Paramount+. Since the contract only pertained to new episodes, this allowed them to stream new “South Park” content while keeping the $500 million. Talk about having your cake and eating it too!
This also seems to be why the show’s naming conventions and amount of episodes changed. What would have originally run as seasons with individual episodes became specials like “South Park: Post COVID.” And while seasons 17-23 had 10-episode runs, the past 3 seasons have only amounted to 14 episodes, in total. With seasons 24 being 2 episodes long, and seasons 25 and 26 being 6 episodes each.
When Warner Bros. Discovery filed suit over this, Paramount said they followed the contract and the specials do not count as episodes. They also claimed that the contract never specified how many episodes per season. Which would be a huge oversight. Though, since the last few seasons had been 10 episodes long, it was reasonable to expect that would continue. (But take this as a reminder to ALWAYS get things like that in writing.)
To add insult to injury, Paramount+ claimed in 2022 that by 2025, they would be the global streaming hub for all the “South Park” episodes, movies, and made-for-streaming movies. Since the $500 million deal was being paid in installments of $25 million a quarter, Warner Bros. Discovery reacted to all of this by stopping payments, while still streaming episodes of “South Park.”
“In short, Defendants’ assertions that it provided all required content to Plaintiff are contradicted by the multitude of factual allegations evincing SPDS’s [South Park Digital Studios] bad faith conduct in diverting new South Park episodes to Paramount+ after granting exclusive streaming rights in such content to Plaintiff,” Warner Bros. Discovery’s opposition filing reads. “At most, Defendants’ assertions present a disputed issue of fact that a jury will need to decide, not grounds for dismissal of Plaintiff’s well-pled claims at the initial pleading stage.”
“This is not merely ‘garden variety’ behavior as Defendants argue,” Warner Bros. Discovery added. “Rather, it is a textbook example of bad faith business conduct, with a consequential adverse impact on consumers at large. Plaintiff’s claims are based on well-pled factual allegations that go far beyond the minimal requirements necessary to withstand a motion to dismiss. Defendants’ Motion is groundless and should be denied in its entirety.”
Warner Bros. Discovery is asking New York Judge Margaret Chan to schedule an oral argument hearing on whether Paramount’s partial motion can go forward or not.
Neither company has commented on this recent addition to the legal battle at this time. We’ll keep you posted on updates on the streaming future of “South Park” as they become available.
