Paramount secures ‘South Park’ streaming deal for $1.5B with creators Parker and Stone

Paramount Global (NASDAQ:PARA) (NASDAQ:PARAA) and the creators of South Park have struck a $1.5B streaming deal, the Los Angeles Times reported late on Monday.

Sources told the LA Times that Paramount agreed to buy the global streaming rights for the popular animated adult comedy series, which will be coming to Paramount+ for the first time in the U.S.

Park County, the media and entertainment company founded by creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, has signed the streaming rights deal at $300M a year for a period of five years, sources told the LA Times. The company has agreed to produce 10 episodes a year.

Since 2019, HBO Max (NASDAQ:WBD) held streaming rights for the show, while Paramount’s streaming platform was still being developed. But that agreement expired in June.

Paramount was in talks to co-license with HBO Max, making the show available on two streaming platforms, but those talks fell through, a source told the LA Times.

Additionally, Paramount and David Ellison’s Skydance Media, who are yet to merge, have separately been negotiating a new deal for Parker and Stone to renew their previous $900M agreement that kept the show on Comedy Central with new episodes through 2027, the report said.

Sources said Park County asked for a 10-year deal, but Skydance countered, insisting on a shorter span due to the dwindling television landscape in the U.S.

Park County was prepared to file a lawsuit to go after Paramount and Skydance, but the parties later agreed on a five-year term, and Skydance signed off on the transaction, the sources told the LA Times.

In June, Bloomberg reported that Parker and Stone accused Skydance of interfering with streaming negotiations for the show worth over a couple billion dollars even before completing the merger with Paramount. HBO Max and Netflix (NFLX) were among companies that had shown interest for the show.