If the Paramount+ South Park movie deal appeared odd when HBO Max scored an exclusive for the collection, you are not alone. Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has sued Paramount World for allegedly breaching components of the $500 million contract that gave HBO Max streaming rights for South Park in 2019. WBD claims Paramount “blatantly meant” to steer customers towards its service by not solely providing new specials, however by shortchanging the HBO service on promised common season content material.
HBO Max was reportedly promised three new seasons with 10 episodes every. Nevertheless, the supplier says it solely obtained eight episodes throughout the 2 delivered seasons, and that the subsequent season’s six episodes additionally fall quick. On high of this, Paramount supposedly used “verbal trickery” to rebrand content material as motion pictures or occasions to keep away from sending video to its competitor.
In an announcement to Engadget, Paramount claims the lawsuit is “with out advantage.” It additionally maintains that it is nonetheless honoring the contract regardless of Warner supposedly failing to pay licensing charges for already-delivered South Park episodes. We have requested WBD for remark.
The lawsuit is not stunning. WBD, beforehand WarnerMedia, was decided to amass as a lot content material as doable for HBO Max forward of its 2020 launch, together with Friends and Doctor Who. Whether or not or not Paramount violated its contract, the South Park content material on Paramount+ diminishes HBO Max’s content material benefit — you not have to make use of that service if you wish to stream the latest adventures of Cartman and crew.
Paramount, in the meantime, has a number of causes to contest the lawsuit. Paramount+ is thriving whilst rivals like Netflix run into hassle, having topped 43 million customers as of final spring. Whereas it is unclear how a lot of a task South Park is enjoying in that development, the corporate could not need to surrender streaming rights for one among its best-known exhibits (Paramount owns Comedy Central, bear in mind) with out a combat.
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