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Warner Bros. Discovery is suing Paramount Universal, saying its rival aired new episodes of the hit animated comedy series “South Park” after Warner paid for the exclusive rights.
According to a lawsuit filed Friday in New York State Supreme Court, Warner said it signed a contract in 2019 that paid more than $500 million for the rights to existing and new episodes of the irreverent show.
Warner’s streaming platform HBO Max was originally scheduled to receive the first episode of the new “South Park” season in 2020, the lawsuit said. But the company was told the pandemic had halted production.
Although Warner has exclusive rights to the show through 2025, the company claims that South Park Digital Studios, which produced the show and is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, provided Paramount with two pandemic-themed specials. show, Paramount airs September 2020, March 2021.
The lawsuit claims that Warner was supposed to be provided with the pandemic special under the original contract. The move, dubbed “verbal deceit” in the lawsuit, lured fans of the show to Paramount’s competing platform. Nearly all South Park episodes premiered on Comedy Central, one of Paramount’s cable channels, the lawsuit said.
Show creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, who launched the show in 1997 and oversee the franchise, have not been named in the lawsuit.
Acquiring the streaming rights to “South Park” was a competitive process, as the potentially lucrative market attracted more subscribers, advertisers and a loyal fan base that Warner’s lawsuit says is largely composed of young people make up.
The 24-page court document also cites a $900 million deal between the Paramount subsidiary and South Park Digital Studios in 2021 for exclusive content on the Paramount Plus streaming service, which launched that same year.
Warners claimed the deal was a deliberate “plan” between Paramount, its subsidiary MTV Entertainment Studios, and South Park Digital Studios to “move as much of the new South Park content as possible to Paramount Plus, to promote this emerging streaming platform.”
Warner paid $1,687,500 per episode and claims it has not received all the episodes covered by the contract, resulting in a loss of more than $200 million.
Paramount Universal did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment on the lawsuit.
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