EXCLUSIVE: Comedy Central picked a curious date for the Season 27 premiere of animated stalwart South Park after a two-year break, July 9. That is just a few days after Paramount’s $500 million exclusive streaming licensing deal with HBO Max for Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s juggernaut is set to expire on June 30, allowing the new season, along with the rest of the South Park library, to stream on Comedy Central’s Paramount sibling Paramount+.
When the date was announced last month, industry observers suspected some gamesmanship since Paramount has long been looking to bring two of its crown jewels on third-party streamers, South Park and Yellowstone, to its Paramount+ platform and in light of Paramount and HBO Max’s contentious partnership on South Park, which has resulted in a lawsuit.
Paramount Global co-CEO Chris McCarthy, who oversees Comedy Central, touted the marquee streaming addition during the company’s earnings call last week.
“And starting this July, [South Park] will be coming to Paramount+ in the US,” he said.
But, in a story that already has had plenty of twists, there may be another one. While South Park will finally be streaming on Paramount+, the series won’t necessarily be leaving HBO Max.
I hear there are conversations about keeping South Park on the Warner Bros. Discovery streamer. Sources stress that the talks are preliminary and part of Paramount taking the series to market.
That is a common practice for big shows created under the traditional TV model in order to avoid self-dealing accusations — and litigation — by profit participants which, in this case include South Park creators/executive producers Parker and Stone.
According to sources, it is certain that South Park will be on Paramount+ starting July 1, but it is uncertain whether the streamer will have it exclusively. Sharing the series on a non-exclusive basis with another platform, like HBO Max, is a real possibility, I hear.
Reps for Paramount and WBD declined comment.
That has been part of Paramount’s MO for virtually all of its library series — and many of its originals except the Taylor Sherdan dramas — bringing in a revenue stream to the company that has been focused on improving its bottom line.
Then AT&T-owned WarnerMedia landed the exclusive domestic streaming rights to all existing plus new seasons of South Park in a $300 million deal signed in 2019, before the launch of Paramount+. After Paramount’s streamer got up and running, South Park started making specials outside of the HBO Max agreement exclusively for Paramount+, triggering the 2023 lawsuit by HBO Max’s current parent WBD against Paramount. It is still pending.
South Park revolves around four boys, Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny. Season 26, which featured six episodes, premiered on Comedy Central in February 2023 and ran through March. There were three specials, written and directed by Parker, that debuted between October 2023 and March 2024.
Parker and Trey signed a deal with Comedy Central in 2021, reportedly for around $900M, to extend South Park through Season 30, running through 2027.
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