Entertainment companies feud over 'South Park' streaming

Warner Bros. Discovery filed a lawsuit against Paramount, claiming the rival media company is disrespecting the “authoritah,” as Eric Carmen the foul-mouthed cartoon child in “South Park” would say, of an exclusivity contract.

As reported by CNN, Warner claimed in its suit filed Friday that Paramount breached its half-billion-dollar contract with its subsidiary HBO Max by airing the adult cartoon on its own streaming platform, Paramount+, which owns Comedy Central, which originally aired the popular show dated back to the 1990s. 

In 2019, Paramount and “South Park’s” creators together auctioned off streaming rights to the show’s first 23 seasons plus three new 10-episode seasons to HBO Max, according to CNN.

In March 2021, Paramount launched Paramount+ and “planned to divert as much of the new “South Park” content as possible to Paramount+ in order to boost that nascent streaming platform,” according to the complaint, accessed by CNN.

“We believe that Paramount and South Park Digital Studios embarked on a multi-year scheme of unfair trade practices and deception, flagrantly and repeatedly breaching our contract, which clearly gave HBO Max exclusive streaming rights to the existing library and new content from the popular animated comedy South Park,” HBO Max said in a statement. 

Paramount says these claims are “without merit.”