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Warner Bros. Discovery has sued Paramount Global for violating an exclusivity agreement with HBO Max when it aired the hit animation series “South Park” on its Paramount Plus streaming platform. The latter has been hit with a $500 million lawsuit for the alleged contract breach.
HBO Max is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery and it was reported that almost all of the “South Park” episodes were broadcasted on Comedy Central first which is owned by Paramount. In 2019, the creators of the animated series and Paramount placed the streaming rights for “South Park” in an auction and it involves the first 23 seasons plus three new 10 episodes.
HBO Max won the bid which means it has the exclusive rights to air the seasons indicated in the agreement. However, Paramount released “South Park” on Paramount Plus so this created an issue with Warner Bros. Discovery leading to the filing of a lawsuit.
Warner Bros. said it has made this move to impose its exclusive “South Park” streaming rights. This lawsuit has now intensified the streaming wars between the companies. CNBC reported that it was on Friday last week when the company went to court to sue and aside from Paramount, MTV Entertainment and South Park Digital Studios are also included in the suit.
Warner Bros. Discovery is seeking more than $500 million in damages for an alleged breach of contract. The amount is equivalent to about $1.69 million per episode of the show.
Meanwhile, Deadline reported that Paramount refuted the claims made against it by Warner Bros. Through its spokesperson, the company told the publication, “We believe these claims are without merit and look forward to demonstrating so through the legal process.”
The representative added, “We also note that Paramount 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 the license fees that it owes to Paramount for episodes that have already been delivered, and which HBO Max continues to stream.”
