Paramount bags South Park in $1.5bn deal after fierce bidding war
Paramount has inked a $1.5bn (£1.1bn) deal with South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, bringing the long-running animated satire exclusively to its streaming platform Paramount+ after a drawn-out bidding war with rivals including HBO Max and Netflix.
The five-year agreement grants Paramount+ streaming rights to all 26 previous seasons of the Emmy-winning show and orders 50 new episodes.
New instalments will air first on Comedy Central, the series’ original home, before dropping on Paramount+ the following day.
The deal marks the first time South Park will stream on Paramount+, and restores the series to the platform in several global markets where its licence had lapsed.
It follows the expiry of a $500m exclusive streaming arrangement with HBO Max and wraps months of complex negotiations delayed by the looming $28bn Paramount-Skydance merger.
Delays and disputes
The drawn-out contract talks led to the delay of South Park’s 27th season premiere, which aired on Wednesday night.
Originally scheduled for 9 July, the debut was postponed by two weeks – a delay Parker and Stone didn’t take lightly.
“This merger is a s***show and it’s f***ing up South Park”, the duo wrote in a now-viral post on the show’s official X account.
“We are at the studio working on new episodes and we hope the fans get to see them somehow.”
True to form, the first episode of Season 27 wasted no time diving into controversy, featuring a Trump-like character in the White House, as the town of South Park spirals into chaos.
The debut episode, ‘Sermon on the ‘Mount’, takes aim at political dysfunction, NPR, and religious extremism with the show’s usual mix of absurdity and vulgarity.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the new pact with Parker and Stone’s Park County production company is worth $300m per year.
It builds on a previous $900m deal struck in 2021 that extended the show through 2027 and funded a series of South Park movies and spin-offs for Paramount+.
The creators are also in the midst of renegotiating a wider agreement to continue producing South Park beyond the current contract, as Paramount looks to lock down flagship IP and stabilise its streaming future amid media consolidation and belt-tightening.
Elsewhere in the company’s portfolio, CBS, also owned by Paramount Global, has faced scrutiny for cancelling ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’, which it insisted was a financial decision.
Some media watchers questioned whether the move was tied to CBS’ $16m settlement with Donald Trump over a lawsuit alleging bias in an interview on the network’s ’60 Minutes’ programme.
Paramount has denied any political motivations.