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Warner Bros. Discovery is suing Paramount for allegedly \u201cstealing\u201d South Park<\/em> content it claims it should have the exclusive streaming rights to, as reported earlier by Variety<\/em><\/a>. In a lawsuit filed on Friday<\/a>, HBO Max\u2019s parent company claims Paramount worked with South Park<\/em>\u2019s creators and its MTV subsidiary to \u201cdivert as much of the new South Park <\/em>content as possible\u201d to Paramount Plus to attract viewers to the platform.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In 2019, Warner Bros. Discovery says it paid around $1.6 million<\/a> for each of the over 300 episodes that South Park Digital Studios (SPDS) \u2014 a joint venture between Paramount and South Park<\/em> creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone \u2014 agreed to license. Warner Bros. Discovery claims Paramount, which also owns Comedy Central, South Park<\/em>\u2019s long-time home on cable TV, \u201cinduced\u201d South Park Digital Studios to breach this contract with Warner Bros. Discovery.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Paramount \u201cused grammatical sleight-of-hand, characterizing new content as \u2018movies,\u2019 \u2018films,\u2019 or \u2018events\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The deal was supposed to bring the show\u2019s entire library, as well as the 30 upcoming new episodes for seasons 24, 25, and 26 to HBO Max until June 2025. However, Warner Bros. Discovery alleges it didn\u2019t get what it paid for. It claims South Park Digital Studios fell short of its promise to provide 10 new episodes for each season and charged the company extra for the 50-minute Pandemic Special<\/em>. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n The lawsuit also takes issue with the massive $900 million deal<\/a> Paramount made with the creators of South Park<\/em> in August 2021 \u2014 just months after the launch of Paramount Plus<\/a>. As part of the deal, South Park<\/em> will exclusively stream on Paramount Plus after the contract with HBO Max ends. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n The studio later went on to create several Paramount Plus-exclusive specials, including South Park: Post Covid<\/em>, South Park: Post Covid: The Return of Covid<\/em>, and South Park: The Streaming Wars Part<\/em> 1<\/em> and Part <\/em>2<\/a>, which debuted throughout 2021 and 2022. Warner Bros. Discovery claims these specials should\u2019ve been included in their contract, and that South Park Studios, Paramount, and MTV \u201cused grammatical sleight-of-hand, characterizing new content as \u2018movies,\u2019 \u2018films,\u2019 or \u2018events\u2019 to side-step SPDS\u2019s contractual obligations.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In a statement to Variety<\/em>, a Paramount spokesperson said the company believes \u201cthese claims are without merit\u201d and alleges Warner Bros. Discovery \u201chas failed and refused to pay license fees that it owes to Paramount for episodes that have already been delivered, and which\u00a0HBO Max\u00a0continues to stream.\u201d Paramount didn\u2019t immediately respond to The Verge<\/em>\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The lawsuit comes at a pivotal time for Warner Bros. Discovery, which reported adding just 1.1 million subscribers<\/a> across HBO, HBO Max, and Discovery Plus this past quarter, while losing another $2.1 billion. It clearly views South Park<\/em> as a core component of HBO Max, as it calls the show \u201canchor\u201d content that\u2019s \u201ccentral to branding and marketing\u201d in the lawsuit, and says having the series lets streamers \u201cincrease subscribers and subscription fees, as well as draw in advertisers.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n