This week Paramount countered sued Warner Bros. Discovery over unpaid streaming rights for the show South Park. Warner Bros. Discovery reportedly owes Paramount $52 million for streaming rights to South Park.
“Warner Bros. Discovery has indefensibly refused to pay the more than $50 million dollars it owes for South Park content that it has undisputedly received and which HBO Max continues to air and exploit,” a Paramount spokesperson said in a statement to Variety. “Warner Bros. Discovery’s argument that Paramount Global was required to deliver additional South Park content is baseless and wholly unsupported by the parties’ agreement. Furthermore, it certainly does not justify WBD’s refusal to pay for immensely valuable content all of which it has received and from which it continues to profit.”
This comes as Warner Bros. Discovery has already sued Paramount, saying they have broken their contract with HBO Max. The main issue here is South Park specials that have streamed on Paramount+, not HBO Max. The argument by Paramount is these specials are not a part of the deal with HBO Max, only the regular season episodes are. HBO Max argues these specials should have been streamed on its streaming service, not Paramount+.
At issue here is the idea that HBO Max has rights to all of South Park’s new productions. Paramount is arguing that they only have rights to regular episodes, not specials. HBO Max wants access to all South Park content even the specials.
Now Paramount has countered sued, demanding payment for the South Park episodes that have been streaming on HBO Max.
For now, we will have to wait and see how this fight plays out for now though South Park will continue to stream on HBO Max as this works its way through the courts.