- Paramount has locked up streaming rights for the entire South Park back catalog. The media company and creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker have signed a five-year deal worth $1.5 billion. HBO Max was the previous streaming home to the show.
Paramount has wrapped up long-running negotiations that will bring the entirety of the South Park catalog to its Paramount+ streaming service, but it’s going to cost them.
The media company has agreed to pay the production company owned by South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker $1.5 billion for the global streaming rights for the next five years. HBO Max previously held the streaming rights to the show. Paramount has, instead, aired South Park original films on its streaming service.
Paramount had originally offered to co-stream the series with HBO Max, which would have let both services air back episodes, but talks between the two companies fell apart last weekend, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The deal comes as the 27th season of South Park begins Wednesday night on Comedy Central—a premiere that was delayed once owing to behind-the-scenes shuffling—and as Stone and Parker prepare to visit Comic-Con on Thursday. The duo have never held back on expressing their feelings.
The $1.5 billion price tag is likely to raise some eyebrows, however, as it comes so soon after Paramount announced it was canceling The Late Show and ending its association with host Stephen Colbert, saying it was “purely a financial decision.” Critics, though, noted the company’s recent settlement with Donald Trump over his claim of an unfairly edited clip from 60 Minutes last year. Colbert had called that settlement “a big fat bribe.”