The Great War of Streaming South Park

Unsurprisingly, South Park is one of the most significant properties for Paramount, being the second most in-demand show behind Yellowstone. It’s the biggest and most watched adult-aminated show ever to spawn.

Though, there’s an ongoing battle over the show's existence in streaming. And things are about to get ugly. Warner Bros. Discovery, or WBD, is suing Paramount Global over the breach of their $500M streaming deal to stream South Park. 
People are siding with Paramount as they claim David Zaslav, president and CEO of WBD, just wants to pay off the company's debt, over $49B. Looking closely at the claims they stated, this is about to start an all-out war with WBD and Paramount.

The Bidding Process

In 2019, South Park Digital Studios, co-owned by Viacom (now Paramount) and South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, announced that it was taking bids to stream the first 23 seasons of South Park. It also includes 30 new episodes (put into separate seasons) after they air on Comedy Central. Netflix, Hulu, CBS (which at that time was merging with Viacom), Amazon, WarnerMedia (now WBD), and NBCUniversal all bid on the rights.

SPDS told Warner to propose a flat-rate, per-episode licensing fee as they thought older episodes were less valuable. It would cost $561,937,500 for 333 episodes ($1,687,500 per episode). SPDS even offered to share the rights with CBS All Access (now Paramount+), which Warner rejected, stating it wouldn’t work as they wanted to stream the show exclusively just for them.

On October 22, 2019, WarnerMedia and South Park Digital Studios agreed on a deal that gave WarnerMedia exclusive streaming rights to South Park for their streaming service HBO Max. The term, which goes from June 24, 2020, to June 23, 2025, gave them the rights to the following:

1. All long-form episodes from seasons 1 through 23;
2. The long-form documentary 6 Days to Air: The Making of South Park;
3. All Licensed Content for seasons 24 through 26 (Type A licensed content); and
4. Selected short-form content. (Type B licensed content)

It was a good deal for HBO Max, but COVID-19 changed everything.

Season 24 Suspends Production

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, South Park Digital Studios told WarnerMedia they would not continue producing season 24. SPDS proceeded to create other South Park content. Between September 2020 and March 2021, they began producing two COVID-themed “specials” (collectively, the “Pandemic Specials”), with each premiered on Comedy Central. The first, The Pandemic Special, aired on September 30, 2020. The second, South ParQ Vaccination Special, aired on March 10, 2021. Both of which are streaming on HBO Max.

SPDS originally stated they were not part of season 24. Though, Warner agreed to pay $3.3M for the special. SPDS declared season 24 would only include long-form specials instead of the promised ten episodes. 

And then Paramount attacked.

Paramount+’s Interference

Paramount wanted to make South Park a core part of its strategy to grow Paramount+. On August 25, 2021, Paramount announced a new deal with creators Parker and Stone worth more than $900 million. As Stone publicly described it, “we have f—k you money now.” That deal provided that extensive new South Park content would premiere exclusively on Paramount+ over the next five years, with two original movies premiering yearly.

The first “event,” entitled South Park: Post COVID, would premiere on Paramount+ on November 25, 2021, and the second “event” would premiere in December 2021 (collectively, the “Post COVID Content”). 

It surprised Warner as they still haven’t received any season 24 episodes, which the next South Park episodes stated to take place in the future, post-COVID—just like the Post COVID specials being provided to Paramount+. And they have never gotten any option to stream the specials. SPDS later told them that the Pandemic Specials (put into two long-form episodes) were part of season 24. 

They reassured Warner that the remaining six episodes would premiere in 2022. HBO Max streams those six episodes, albeit under season 25 alongside season 26, which is currently premiering on Comedy Central. Paramount+ has also released South Park: The Streaming Wars and South Park: The Streaming Wars Part 2 since then.

WBD is suing for $200M, though Paramount claims WBD has not paid for the new episodes streaming on HBO Max.

What’s the Future Looking Like

This isn’t a situation like Yellowstone, which Paramount created prequels of the show plus an overall deal with the creator while the main show is on Peacock. Paramount and South Park Digital Studios literally manipulated WBD into paying so much for so little. Plus they never offered WBD the option to purchase or co-stream the specials.

Because they loopholed the HBO Max deal and WBD only received a third of what’s promised, Warner Bros. Discovery may be the clear winner and Paramount may have to pay the $200M. Paramount should revise that agreement with WBD and consider sharing the rights to both seasons 27 & 28. Seasons 27 & 28 are already planned to stream on Paramount+ and since the deal would end by the time the season 28 finale would air. It should cover the promised 30 episodes they agreed on in 2019, just so both parties are on good terms.

At the same time, WBD is at fault as well. HBO Max is only supposed to get new episodes of the show for 3 seasons, specials are not included. Plus, they haven’t paid for any of the new episodes Paramount licensed to them. Also to consider, they could of gone the east route in the first place and allowed CBS All Access/Paramount+ as a partner to the deal. Paramount+ already streams the show internationally (which they could stop region blocking US subscribers and direct them into using a VPN to watch South Park) and HBO Max only streams for US subscribers. A reminder that WBD may also try to get out of the deal to save money. Though we have yet to hear more of Paramount’s counterclaims.

In the end, this may result in one of the biggest battle in the streaming wars and it’s all over one property.