After longstanding negotiations, South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, through their Park County production company, have scored a $1.5 billion deal with Paramount Plus for the show’s global streaming rights.
The entire series will be available for the first time in the U.S. on the streamer, with the deal valued at $300 million a year, according to the Los Angeles Times. Although the deal has not been finalized, Park County is expected to produce ten episodes a year.
This past spring, Paramount offered HBO Max and its parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, a chance to co-license South Park, which would have allowed the series to stream on both HBO Max and Paramount Plus. However, negotiations fell apart over the weekend and into Monday, according to a source familiar with the matter, leading Paramount to proceed solo.
Stone and Parker were preparing to file a lawsuit as negotiations grew tense last week, but talks resumed and ultimately led to a five-year agreement — shorter than the ten-year deal Matt and Trey had originally sought.
Both sides had been pushing to strike a deal ahead of Wednesday’s Season 27 premiere on Comedy Central, a date already delayed due to behind-the-scenes tensions as Paramount moves closer to a sale to David Ellison’s Skydance Media.
Paramount and Skydance were also eager to avoid negative publicity ahead of Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s Thursday appearance at San Diego Comic-Con.
