Warner Bros. Discovery won a rulinginits lawsuit against Paramount Global, MTV Entertainment, and South Park Digital Studios over the alleged breach of a $500 million licensing deal for the exclusive streaming rights ofSouth Park. What it comes down to is Warner Bros. Discovery alleged thatParamount Global may have worked with the joint venture that producesSouth Parkto violate the terms of the WBD Deal, perThe Hollywood Reporter.
Background of Warner Bros. Discovery’s Lawsuit Against Paramount Global over ‘South Park’
Warner Bros. Discovery’s lawsuit was filed in February 2023, and accused Paramount Global of violating the $500 million deal to exclusively streamSouth Parkon Max, which was signed in 2019. The lawsuit was to enforce that deal, alleging that Paramount cut the number of episodes per season andbegan streaming specials on Paramount+. That was peran agreement Paramount Global made with Parker and Stone in 2021. Paramount+ will be the new home forSouth Parkthis year.
The alleged terms of the deal, which was set up by SPDS, the joint venture created by Paramount Global and South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, included a flat-rate, per-episode licensing fee.The $500 million deal included the South Park library along with 30 new episodes over the next three seasons. That worked out to about $1.69 million per episode, according toThe Hollywood Reporter. Paramount Global denied the violation and said WBD had stopped paying licensing fees for some of the episodes airing on Max.
All 12 ‘South Park’ Episodes of the 2020s, Not Including Specials, Ranked
Fans often consider earlier ‘South Park’ seasons to be the best, but many of these 2020 episodes are just as funny as the classics.
Fast-forward to the summary judgment issued by Justice Chan on Aug 04, 2025 (read it here), Paramount Global will face some of the claims made by WBD. The judgment read, in part, that Paramount Global may have"actively convinced" SPDS by “taking advantage of the contract’s ambiguity” to violate the terms of the deal with WBD, because the deal didn’t include “specials.”
Other alleged contract breaches includedproducing four new 50-minute specials to stream exclusively on Paramount+, along with reducing the episode count from 10 to six for seasons 25 and 26. The court said WBD signed for the exclusive streaming rights for allSouth Parkcontent released between 2019 and 2025. For its part, SPDS said the specials were outside the scope of the deal.
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