Have the actual ‘Streaming Wars’ formally begun? Warner Bros. Discovery has filed a lawsuit in opposition to Paramount for breach of a $500 million licensing deal which granted HBO Max streaming rights to South Park episodes, in line with Selection.
Filed on February twenty fourth within the New York state Supreme Court docket, the go well with alleges that South Park particular content material was steered to Paramount+ as a substitute of HBO Max “on the expense of Warner/HBO,” and that Paramount engaged in “a number of and flagrant duplicitous contortions of truth and breaches of contract.”
Describing potential losses, the go well with claims, “Warner/HBO brings this lawsuit to vindicate its rights and recuperate the tons of of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in damages incurred because of Defendants’ misconduct.”
Though the unique deal was made in 2019, HBO Max was not set to launch till Could 2020. HBO Max’s bid for streaming rights assured the corporate all historic seasons, in addition to three new seasons of 10 episodes every, for a complete of 30 episodes. Nonetheless, solely two episodes from the preliminary season and 6 from the second had been delivered to HBO Max, the go well with alleges. The final assured season solely consists of six episodes, for a complete of 14 as a substitute of 30. Warner Bros. Discovery claims that new episodes are with greater than previous ones, creating an enormous revenue loss.
Moreover, regardless of the streaming rights deal, Paramount subsidiary MTV brokered a $900 million take care of South Park creators Matt Parker and Trey Stone in 2021 for 14 “made for streaming” South Park motion pictures unique to Paramount+, with a press launch stating the deal would “assist gas Paramount+.” The go well with argues that this deal diverted content material already below contract for HBO Max to the Paramount streamer, and that “grammatical sleight-of-hand” was used to categorise the content material as “motion pictures,” “movies” or “occasions” as a substitute of the “episodes” to which HBO Max was entitled.
Paramount denies all allegations. “We imagine these claims are with out advantage and stay up for demonstrating so by way of the authorized course of,” a Paramount International spokesperson stated. “We additionally word that Paramount continues to stick to the events’ contract by delivering new South Park episodes to HBO Max, even though Warner Bros. Discovery has failed and refused to pay license charges that it owes to Paramount for episodes which have already been delivered, and which HBO Max continues to stream.”
Cybersecurity specialist by day, investigative journalist by evening.
