Image Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Paramount has counter-sued Warner Brothers Discovery’s $200 million lawsuit for more than $52 million dollars. Previously, WBD sued Paramount, South Park Digital Studios and MTV Entertainment Studios for a 2019 licensing deal. They argued that their payment of $500 million dollars for exclusive streaming rights to all previous seasons of South Park and 30 new episodes of South Park had not been met.
South Park is one of the most expensive media properties as the creators and Paramount Global set a deal for $935 million dollars in 2007. For reference, this deal is worth more than Ryan Murphy, Shonda Rhimes, and Greg Berlanti’s deals. Their 2007 contract with Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS) is being cited for “verbal trickery” and “grammatical sleight-of-hand” used to bypass the WBD deal. The contract now includes that the creators of South Park owe Paramount+ 14 made-for-streaming movies.
The Paramount Global countersuit is based upon unpaid licensing fees from WBD. They believe that WBD has shown intent that they will not be paying any of the remaining $225 million in licensing fees that are a part of the five year contract. Paramount Global believes that they did not agree to WBD disregarding their shared contract in this manner. The $52 million dollars is based upon the prior agreement of each episode being valued at $1.68 million. The other main issue being debated is the number of episodes agreed for future seasons for WBD, however there was no set amount of episodes per season. Paramount believes that the 16 episodes that they have already delivered make up three seasons.
As this case continues to evolve, it will be interesting to see what standard this case sets for how streamers negotiate streaming their intellectual property for other streamers. Additionally, as the WGA Writers Strike is about to commence, it will be interesting to see if this lawsuit shapes how streamers place value on episodes and how many episodes make up a “normal” season.
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ROGER IRWIN 