‘South Park’ lawsuit: Warner Bros. Discovery sues Paramount for $500 million | Information Business
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Warner Bros. Discovery filed a lawsuit from Paramount Friday, proclaiming the rival media firm breached its fifty percent-billion-greenback exclusivity agreement with HBO Max by airing “South Park” on its individual streaming platform, Paramount+.
HBO Max is a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery, which also owns News.
Almost all “South Park” episodes air very first on Paramount-owned Comedy Central. In 2019, Paramount and “South Park’s” creators collectively auctioned off streaming legal rights to the show’s 1st 23 seasons additionally a few new 10-episode seasons to HBO Max.
Prior to Discovery’s 2022 merger with Warner Bros., WarnerMedia, then owned by AT&T, agreed to fork out nearly $1.7 million for unique streaming legal rights for each individual “South Park” episode, the go well with alleges. The 1st episodes of “South Park” year 24 were being to be shipped in March 2020. Then arrived the pandemic, and WarnerMedia was explained to that the new generation of “South Park” would be halted, according to the complaint.
In March 2021, Paramount released Paramount+, and Warner Bros. Discovery promises Paramount, MTV and South Park Electronic Studios alongside one another “planned to divert as a lot of the new “South Park” content as probable to Paramount+ in order to raise that nascent streaming system.”
The corporation also explained it was promised 30 new episodes above a few seasons, but has only gained 14 episodes to date.
“We consider that Paramount and South Park Electronic Studios embarked on a multi-calendar year scheme of unfair trade practices and deception, flagrantly and repeatedly breaching our contract, which clearly gave HBO Max distinctive streaming rights to the present library and new information from the common animated comedy South Park,” HBO Max mentioned in a statement.
Paramount claims these claims are “without merit.”
Paramount “continues to adhere to the parties’ deal by offering new South Park episodes to HBO Max, despite the actuality that Warner Bros. Discovery has failed and refused to spend license costs that it owes to Paramount for episodes that have presently been delivered, and which HBO Max proceeds to stream,” a Paramount World spokesperson mentioned.
The lawsuit, submitted in the New York State Supreme Court, also claims a individual $900 million deal between MTV, a subsidiary of Paramount, and South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, broke the terms of the agreement in August 2021. This deal provided 14 “made-for-streaming” “South Park” videos that would premiere on Paramount+.
Warner Bros. Discovery statements the defendants utilized language like “movies,” “films,” and “events” to sidestep their contractual obligations.
“As Stone publicly explained it, “we have f—k you money now,” the match statements he stated, pertaining to the deal with MTV.