The creators of Comedy Central’s “South Park” made progress Monday in their intense negotiations over the show’s streaming rights.
Paramount has agreed to purchase the global streaming rights for “South Park” so the show can be available on Paramount+ in the U.S. for the first time, according to three people familiar with the deal who aren’t authorized to speak publicly.
The deal, made with Trey Parker and Matt Stone through their Park County production company, is valued at $300 million per year, according to two sources close to the matter. Since the deal is for five years, it means the show will earn $1.5 billion from streaming alone.
This huge amount keeps “South Park” among the world’s most valuable TV franchises. As part of the agreement, Park County will create 10 new episodes each year.
Paramount has been eager to bring the show back. In 2019, earlier executives licensed the show to HBO Max because Paramount+ wasn’t launched yet. That decision kept the show off Paramount’s platform — similar to how the fictional town of South Park is often isolated.
That deal with HBO Max ended in late June.
Earlier this year, Paramount offered HBO Max’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, a chance to share the rights so both Paramount+ and HBO Max could stream the show. But over the weekend and into Monday, talks fell apart, so Paramount decided to move forward alone, according to one person familiar with the situation.
Both companies were motivated to finalize the deal before Wednesday, when “South Park” begins its 27th season on Comedy Central. The premiere had already been delayed once due to behind-the-scenes issues, while Paramount gets ready to be sold to David Ellison’s Skydance Media.
Paramount and Skydance also wanted to avoid any bad press before Parker and Stone appear Thursday at Comic-Con in San Diego.
Since 2007, Park County has had a deal with Paramount to get nearly half the show’s streaming revenue through their joint venture, South Park Digital Studios. This setup means Paramount could recover about half of what it pays for the streaming rights. The deal took months due to Paramount’s planned sale to Skydance.
Meanwhile, the two sides were also working on a separate new overall deal for Parker and Stone, to renew their earlier $900 million agreement that keeps “South Park” airing on Comedy Central through 2027.
Parker and Stone’s team wants a higher value to produce more seasons.
Because of a deal made last year with Paramount’s board, Skydance must approve any major decisions made by the company.
Park County initially wanted a 10-year deal, but Skydance pushed back, preferring a shorter agreement because of the uncertain future of TV.
Talks became tense last week, and Park County brought in tough lawyers Stuart Liner and Bryan Freedman to prepare a lawsuit against Paramount and Skydance, said two sources.
However, by the end of the week, talks resumed. Everyone agreed to a five-year deal instead of ten.
Skydance approved the agreement, according to sources. Kevin Morris, Parker and Stone’s longtime lawyer, and Keith Pizzi, CEO of Park County, led the talks for the creators. Keyes Hill-Edgar, Paramount’s COO of media networks, led talks for the company.
Skydance’s David Ellison and Jeff Shell, a top executive at RedBird Capital Partners (a Skydance partner), were closely involved in the discussions to bring “South Park” to Paramount+.
All companies involved declined to comment on Monday.
Source: Latimes