Media companies own their copyrights to show certain titles, and they earned their rights after spending money to acquire that rights.
When a contract is violated, it's certain that a clash will happen.
This is exactly what happened between Warner Bros. Discovery, when it realized that Paramount, its rival media company, breached its half-billion-dollar exclusivity contract with HBO MAX by airing "made-for-streaming South Park movies on its own streaming platform, Paramount+.
It all began back in 2019, when Paramount and South Park’s creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone auctioned off streaming rights to the show’s first 23 seasons plus three new 10-episode seasons to HBO Max.
Prior to Discovery’s 2022 merger with Warner Bros., WarnerMedia, then owned by AT&T, agreed to pay nearly $1.7 million for exclusive streaming rights for each South Park episode, the suit alleged.
Warner Bros. Discovery said that by paying that sum of money, it has the rights to the over 300 episodes of South Park Digital Studios (SPDS), which is a joint venture between Paramount and South Park creators agreed to license.
The first episodes of South Park season 24 were to be delivered in March 2020.
But when the COVID-19 outbreak became a worldwide pandemic, WarnerMedia was told that the new production of South Park would be halted, according to the complaint.
Then, in March 2021, after Paramount introduced Paramount+, Warner Bros. Discovery claimed that Paramount, MTV and South Park Digital Studios have together "planned to divert as much of the new South Park content as possible to Paramount+ in order to boost that nascent streaming platform."
As part of the deal, South Park is meant to be exclusively streamed on Paramount+ after the contract with HBO Max ends.
By having the rights, Paramount moved fast went to create several Paramount+-exclusive specials, including South Park: Post COVID, South Park: Post COVID: The Return of COVID, and South Park: The Streaming Wars, which debuted throughout 2021 and 2022.
Warner Bros. Discovery claimed that these specials should’ve been included in their contract, not Paramount's, and claimed that South Park Studios, Paramount, and MTV “used grammatical sleight-of-hand, characterizing new content as ‘movies,’ ‘films,’ or ‘events’ to side-step SPDS’s contractual obligations.”
Warner Bros. Discovery said that it was promised to have 30 new episodes over three seasons, but has only received 14 episodes.
The lawsuit, which was filed in the New York State Supreme Court, also claims a separate $900 million deal between MTV, a subsidiary of Paramount, and South Park creators, who allegedly broke the terms of the contract in August 2021.
In short, Warner Bros. Discovery sues Paramount for allegedly "stealing" South Park content it claims it should have the exclusive streaming rights to
"We believe that Paramount and South Park Digital Studios embarked on a multi-year scheme of unfair trade practices and deception, flagrantly and repeatedly breaching our contract, which clearly gave HBO Max exclusive streaming rights to the existing library and new content from the popular animated comedy South Park," said HBO Max in a statement.
In response, Paramount said that the claims are "without merit."
Paramount said that it "continues to adhere to the parties’ contract by delivering new South Park episodes to HBO Max, despite the fact that Warner Bros. Discovery has failed and refused to pay license fees that it owes to Paramount for episodes that have already been delivered, and which HBO Max continues to stream."
The lawsuit came at a time when Warner Bros. Discovery, which reportedly added just 1.1 million subscribers across HBO, HBO Max, and Discovery Plus this the last quarter of 2022, but lost a few billion dollars in revenue in the process.
This suggests that South Park is one of the major part of HBO MAX, and because of this, Warner Bros. Discovery can go to great length to defend what it thinks is its rights.
And this is why Warner Bros. Discovery is suing Paramount, SPDS, and MTV for "significant monetary damages."
