Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman and Kenny McCormick at the Special Retrospective Event Celebrating 20 Seasons of ‘South Park’ at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills, CA on September 1, 2016 to attend
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warner bros discovery sued Paramount Global It seeks to exercise its streaming rights to South Park, setting the stage for a legal battle between the two media giants as the streaming war rages on.
On Friday, Warner Bros. Discovery filed a lawsuit against Paramount, South Park Digital Studios and MTV Entertainment seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in what it believes to be breach of contract.
Warner said it agreed to pay more than $500 million in 2019, or about $1.69 million per episode. His HBO Max, his own streaming his platform.
Paramount is said to have asked during the bidding process for the rights to “South Park” whether Warner Bros. Discovery would consider sharing the rights to the show for Paramount’s own streaming service.
“Warner/HBO dismissed the proposal as ‘not prosecuted,'” according to the complaint.
However, Warner alleges in the lawsuit that Paramount returned to the deal and withheld the “South Park” special and other related content. increase.
A Paramount spokeswoman denied the allegations made by Warner in Friday’s lawsuit, adding that Warner has stopped paying licensing fees.
A Paramount spokesperson said in a statement, “We believe these allegations are baseless and look forward to proving them through legal proceedings.” Despite the fact that it refused to pay the licensing fees owed to Paramount for episodes that had already been distributed, Paramount continues to abide by both parties’ agreements by providing new South Park episodes to HBO Max. Also note that it’s live and HBO Max is still streaming.”
The deal called for HBO Max to receive the first episode of the latest season of “South Park” in 2020, but Paramount announced in March that it would halt production on the season as a result of the pandemic. said it had notified
Warner then announced that “South Park” and its creators will continue to produce other types of content, including two pandemic-themed specials that aired between September 2020 and March 2021. claim to have proceeded.
Warner further claims the plan was underway when Paramount subsidiary MTV signed a deal with the creators of “South Park” in 2021, demanding $900 million worth of exclusive Paramount+ content. doing.
“Paramount and South Park Digital Studios have embarked on a multi-year scheme of unfair trade practices and deception, blatantly and repeatedly breached agreements, and granted HBO Max exclusive streaming rights to existing libraries and new content from popular anime. clearly gave us a comedy south parka spokesperson for Warner Bros. Discovery said in a statement on Friday.
The showdown comes at a time when streaming services are vying for subscribers and looking to achieve profitability in the near future. Media companies have spent billions of dollars on content to attract customers. has recently started cutting costs as increased competition has slowed subscriber growth.
This week, Warner Bros. Discovery reported a big loss in quarterly earnings as it faces a softening advertising market that is weighing on the company’s earnings. However, according to the company, global streaming subscribers have grown by 1.1 million, with total services including HBO Max and Discovery+ reaching 96.1 million. Losses from his streaming business also narrowed to $217 million over the period, a “$511 million improvement over the previous year.”
Warner Bros. Discovery plans to launch a streaming service that combines HBO Max and Discovery+ this spring.
Meanwhile, Paramount announced last week that Paramount+ reached 56 million subscribers in the latest quarter. The company plans to increase the price of its streaming service when it integrates Paramount+ and Showtime later this year. Paramount also said it was hit by a tough advertising market.
