The Los Angeles Times has reported that an agreement has been reached between the creators of Comedy Central’s long-running adult cartoon South Park and Paramount. Sources for the outlet who were not authorized to speak on the deal confirm that Paramount will purchase the streaming rights for the show for $1.5 billion for five years, not the ten years that the show’s creators had hoped for.
Mxdwn previously reported that the new season of South Park was originally set to air on Comedy Central on July 9th, yet due to the merger between Paramount and Skydance, the show’s new season had been pushed back to July 23rd.
The LA Times confirms that the streaming platform that hosted the series more recently, HBO Max, and its parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, have backed out of the negotiations. All episodes of the show have already been removed as the streaming contract they had has already expired.
Per the LA Times, creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone were driving a hard bargain. They may have been left wanting a full ten-year contract, but they are set to gain plenty with long-standing contracts already in place for their company, Park County, set to bring home almost half of the shows’ streaming revenue through a partnership with Paramount named South Park Digital Studios. It seems the South Park special, Streaming Wars, may have more truth to it than not. To sweeten the deal for the show’s creators even more, they are looking to renegotiate their current $900 million contract with Comedy Central, which keeps their show on the network until 2027. It seems the long-time creators see the current merger as the perfect time to strike while the iron is hot; they are asking for a higher evaluation for their show to produce new content. The first episode of the new season of South Park has already premiered on Comedy Central.
