New York (CNN) Warner Bros. Discovery sued Paramount on Friday, alleging that the rival media company breached its half-billion-dollar exclusive contract With HBO Max by streaming “South Park” on its own streaming platform, Paramount+.
HBO Max is a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery, which also owns CNN.
Almost all episodes of “South Park” premiere on Paramount’s Comedy Central. In 2019, together the creators of Paramount and “South Park” The streaming rights for the first 23 seasons of the show as well as three new 10-episode seasons have been auctioned off to HBO Max.
Before Discovery’s 2022 merger with Warner Bros. WarnerMedia, then owned by AT&T, She agreed to pay approximately $1.7 million for the exclusive broadcast rights to each episode of “South Park,” the lawsuit alleges. The first episodes of “South Park” Season 24 were scheduled to be shown in March 2020, then the pandemic came, and WarnerMedia was told that new productions of “South Park” would be halted, according to the complaint.
In March 2021, Paramount Paramount + launched, and Warner Bros. Discovery reported that Paramount, MTV, and South Park Digital Studios jointly “planned to shift as much of the new ‘South Park’ content as possible to Paramount+ in order to further this emerging streaming platform.”
The company also said it had promised 30 new episodes over three seasons, but had only received 14 so far.
“We believe Paramount and South Park Digital Studios have embarked on a multiyear scheme of unfair business practices and deception, flagrantly and repeatedly breaching our contract, which granted HBO Max exclusive streaming rights to the existing library of new content from the popular animated comedy South Park,” it said. HBO Max in a statement.
Paramount says these claims are “unsubstantiated”.
Paramount “continues to honor the parties’ contract by delivering new episodes of South Park to HBO Max, even though Warner Bros. Discovery has failed and refused to pay the licensing fees it owes Paramount for episodes already delivered, which continues HBO.” Max broadcasts,” said a Paramount Global spokesperson.
The lawsuit, filed in the New York State Supreme Court, also claims a separate thing A $900 million deal between MTV, a subsidiary of Paramount, and South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone breached contract terms in August 2021. This deal included 14 “made-to-air” “South Park” shows. Movies that will premiere on Paramount+.
Warner Bros. claims Discovery found that the defendants used language such as “movies,” “movies,” and “events” to avoid their contractual obligations.
As Stone publicly described it, “we have money now,” the lawsuit said, regarding the deal with MTV.
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