‘South Park’ Lawsuit: Warner Bros. Discovery Sues Paramount Global Over Licensing Dispute

variety.com:

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer HBO Max’s parent company has filed a lawsuit that accuses Paramount Global of reneging on parts of the $500 million licensing deal set in 2019 for the streaming rights to episodes of “South Park.” The suit, filed Friday in New York state Supreme Court, asserts that Paramount breached the contract by steering “South Park” specials and other content to its own Paramount+ platform.

The suit alleges that Paramount “blatantly intended to prop up Paramount+ at the expense of Warner/HBO,” and that Paramount engaged in “multiple and flagrant duplicitous contortions of fact and breaches of contract.” “Warner/HBO brings this lawsuit to vindicate its rights and recover the hundreds of millions of dollars in damages incurred as a result of Defendants’ misconduct,” the suit alleges.

The suit asserts that HBO Max has been pushing Paramount to resolve the dispute for months. HBO Max set a whopping licensing pact with Paramount for rights to “South Park” episodes in October 2019 as then-parent company AT&T was preparing to launch the HBO Max streaming platform in May 2020. “South Park” has been a staple of Paramount Global’s Comedy Central cable channel for more than 25 years.

The enduring animated comedy, which hails from Trey Parker and Matt Stone, is in its 26th season and has amassed more than 300 episodes to date.