Paramount can breathe a sigh of relief — its "South Park" drama is finally over.
For those who haven't been following along, Paramount has been in the news for all the wrong reasons recently. Whether it's being accused of giving President Trump a de facto bribe to get its stalled merger with Skydance Media through the FCC or two of its late-night hosts telling Paramount and Trump to "Go f*ck yourself," as Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart did last night, things haven't been great.
But Monday night (July 21), the media company scored a major victory, securing the global streaming rights for “South Park,” and ensuring its streaming service is no longer without one of its key shows (h/t Los Angeles Times).
Yes, this means that the hit animated series will now be available to U.S. Paramount Plus subscribers for the first time ever. The show had previously been available to stream on HBO Max, despite new episodes airing on Paramount-owned Comedy Central.
That's because show creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, through their Park County production company, are part of a joint venture that controls the global "South Park" streaming rights — Paramount doesn't wholly control who gets it.
But after ponying up $1.5 billion, Paramount can rest easy for another five years, when it'll need to negotiate these streaming rights all over again, likely as part of Skydance Media.
'South Park' saga: How we got here and what comes next
Let's quickly recap how this "South Park" situation blew up into a full-blown saga.
As I mentioned, Parker and Stone have significant weight in negotiating the streaming rights for "South Park." Those rights came up for negotiation this year, with both the international and U.S. rights set to expire this summer.
Unfortunately for Paramount — and "South Park" fans — negotiations did not go smoothly, in no small part due to Paramount Global's impending merger with Skydance Media. Skydance has the authority to approve major Paramount transactions as part of the merger terms, even before the merger becomes official, and the media company and Parker and Stone were significantly far apart on the length of the deal in particular, with the "South Park" creators wanting a deal double the length of what Skydance wanted.
So in late June, the U.S. rights expired, though the show remained on HBO Max. Then, earlier this month, the international rights expired, and Paramount had to pull all 26 seasons of "South Park" from Paramount Plus in regions outside of the U.S. It even forced Paramount to push the premiere of "South Park" season 27 to this Wednesday (July 23).
But now that drama is all behind us. If you have Paramount Plus, you'll now be able to watch every episode of "South Park" until at least the summer of 2030. If you have HBO Max, you'll have to consider signing up for Paramount Plus if you want to keep watching episodes of the beloved adult animated comedy series.
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