Paramount alleges Warner Bros. Discovery owes $52M for ‘South Park’ streaming rights

A couple of months after Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) sued Paramount over the streaming rights for “South Park,” Paramount is now placing again.

On Wednesday, April 19, Paramount countered sued WBD, alleging that the corporate is withholding two required funds of $26 million every, bringing the entire unpaid charges to $52 million.

“South Park Studios has abided by the phrases of the written Time period Sheet. WarnerMedia has not,” the countersuit writes. “As an alternative, regardless of constantly exploiting and taking advantage of the 300-plus episodes of South Park that’s nonetheless accessible for streaming on HBO Max, Warner Media is refusing to pay tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in license charges owed to South Park Studios for the precise to take advantage of that content material.”

The counterclaim, filed in New York Supreme Courtroom, argues that the unpaid charges cowl the 318 “South Park” episodes streaming on HBO Max.

The over 300 episodes are from seasons 1 by way of 26. HBO Max can be streaming the made-for-television documentary “6 Days to Air: The Making of South Park,” which Paramount talked about within the doc.

“To purportedly justify its non-payment, WarnerMedia has accused South Park Studios of breaching sure alleged obligations within the Time period Sheet,” it added.

In 2019, WBD paid $500 million for streaming rights to stream 23 seasons of the animated sitcom, in addition to three new seasons (seasons 24, 25 and 26) that had but to air. The deal was set to final by way of June 2025.

In February of this 12 months, WBD filed a lawsuit (Deadline acquired the doc) that accused Paramount of breaching the deal, alleging that Paramount stole “South Park” content material from HBO Max to place by itself streaming service, Paramount+. To be extra particular, WBD mentioned Paramount launched new “South Park” specials on Paramount+, which WBD believes ought to’ve streamed on HBO Max.

In 2021, Paramount’s MTV Studios paid a whopping $900 million in a cope with “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The settlement, which runs by way of 2027, included six seasons of the present in addition to 14 made-for-streaming motion pictures that may stream completely on Paramount+.

“We consider that Paramount and South Park Digital Studios launched into a multi-year scheme of unfair commerce practices and deception, flagrantly and repeatedly breaching our contract, which clearly gave HBO Max unique streaming rights to the prevailing library and new content material from the favored animated comedy South Park,” a WBD spokesperson mentioned in a press release that was shared with TechCrunch.

“Warner Bros. Discovery’s argument that Paramount International was required to ship further South Park content material is baseless and wholly unsupported by the events’ settlement. Moreover, it definitely doesn’t justify WBD’s refusal to pay for immensely useful content material, all of which it has obtained and from which it continues to revenue,” a Paramount spokesperson advised Selection yesterday.

Paramount was not instantly accessible to remark to TechCrunch.

Within the February 2023 lawsuit, WBD declared that the corporate bid on the “South Park” streaming rights as a result of it had assurance that the three yet-to-air seasons would include 10 episodes every. Nevertheless, the corporate claims that Paramount did not ship on a variety of episodes.

WBD added it continues to tackle damages of over $200 million “on account of Defendants’ misconduct,” wrote the lawsuit. In line with the corporate, the brand new episodes maintain the next worth than the older ones. Subsequently, WBD overpaid for the streaming rights.