“South Park” creators Matt Stone, left, and Trey Parker examine the “South Park: The Fractured But Whole” video clip sport onstage at Ubisoft’s E3 2015 Conference at the Orpheum Theatre on June 15, 2015, in Los Angeles. (Picture by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)
The creators of “South Park” reneged on a extra than fifty percent-billion-greenback deal with HBO and its guardian enterprise to sign an even a lot more beneficial deal with Paramount to come to be a marquee presenting of its streaming company, a lawsuit that Warner Bros. submitted in Manhattan alleges.
HBO Max, whose mum or dad organization is plaintiff WarnerMedia Direct, claims it outbid various competitors to indicator a deal with South Park Electronic Studios (SPDS) in 2019.
Warner Bros. promises that this additional than $500 million deal, declared to great fanfare on Comedy Central’s site, gave them distinctive streaming legal rights to the series’ entire library, furthermore a few new seasons.
Then, the business promises, Paramount hatched a program to lure the “South Park” franchise to its new streaming service—and sidestep the show’s contractual obligations by means of a “campaign of verbal trickery.”
“To execute this, Defendants applied grammatical sleight-of-hand, characterizing new content as ‘movies,’ ‘films,’ or ‘events’ to facet-phase SPDS’s contractual obligations,” the lawsuit states.
The defendants are Paramount World-wide, South Park Digital Studios, and MTV Amusement Studios.
By 2021, HBO suggests, “South Park” shipped none of the 22-minute episodes for time 24 that ended up promised under the arrangement. Paramount declared the start of its streaming services early that same yr.
Considerably less than six months soon after the start of Paramount+, an executive reviewed a system “to enable fuel” the platform through “South Park” and claimed “[f]ranchising marquee written content like South Park… is at the coronary heart of [their] tactic to continue on growing Paramount+,” according to the lawsuit.
Warner Bros. states that Paramount’s indirect subsidiary MTV introduced a offer with “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone on Aug. 21, 2021.
“As Stone publicly described it, ‘we have f—k you cash now,”” the lawsuit states.
For Warner Bros., the deal hinged on a rhetorical slight of hand to distinguish Paramount’s written content from HBO’s distinctive.
“Specifically, MTV publicly introduced that, underneath the Paramount+ offer, 14 ‘made-for-streaming movies’ (as opposed to ‘episodes’ or ‘events’) would premiere on Paramount+, starting with two ‘films’ in 2021,” the lawsuit alleges.
But Warner Bros. claims that all those “films” were “substantially similar” to the “Pandemic Specials” presented to HBO as accredited written content.
“All 4 episodes featured the iconic characters from the prior 23 seasons of South Park, addressed equivalent subject matter issue (COVID), and had related operating occasions (somewhere around 50-60 minutes per episode),” the lawsuit claims.
“Incredibly, this was not Defendants’ only duplicity with regard to the Publish-COVID Information,” it carries on. “When MTV and Paramount+ announced the Write-up-COVID Content, they experienced to begin with characterised the episodes as ‘movies.’ Nevertheless, when WB pointed out that exploitation of motion picture sequels to South Park: Larger, Longer & Uncut expected WB’s written consent underneath the 1998 Agreement, MTV, on details and belief, in coordination with Paramount and SPDS, adjusted its characterization of the Publish-COVID Material from ‘movies’ to ‘events.’”
All those integrated “supersized” Pandemic Specials titled “The Streaming Wars Portion 1” and “The Streaming Wars Element 2.”
Warner Bros. demands a lot more than $200 million in damages for 5 causes of steps linked to alleged breach of agreement.
Paramount did not immediately respond to an email requesting remark.
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