What’s the Beef Between South Park’s Creators and Paramount?

On July 2, Comedy Central sent out an unceremonious press release announcing plans to push the season-27 premiere of South Park, announced back in April, from July 9 to July 23. The announcement might have flown under the radar, but not long after, the show’s creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, took to South Park’s official X account to express frustration with the decision. “This merger is a shitshow and it’s fucking up South Park,” they wrote, referring to the pending acquisition of Comedy Central’s parent company, Paramount Global, by Skydance. “We are at the studio working on new episodes and we hope the fans get to see them somehow.”

If it seems a little extreme to say that a two-week delay of a season premiere two years in the making is “fucking up” a show that has been on the air since 1997, it might be because Stone and Parker’s statement is missing some context. The duo, who share ownership of South Park with Paramount Global, is also currently embroiled in a dispute with the media giant over the streaming rights to the show. With South Park’s previous exclusive streaming deal with Max (soon to be HBO Max) expiring last week, the pair and Paramount Global have jointly been trying to find a new streaming home (or multiple, non-exclusive streaming homes) for the series, and Stone and Parker have alleged that Paramount is interfering in their negotiations with streamers like Warner Bros. Discovery and Netflix, which have purportedly made bids to carry the series. Per reporting in The Hollywood Reporter, the pair threatened legal action on the matter in a letter to incoming Paramount Global president Jeff Shell. Among their claims: Paramount Global attempted to get Warner Bros. Discovery to agree to a shorter, five-year streaming deal to carry the series and negotiate terms where it would only stream new seasons of South Park after a 12-month window of exclusivity on Paramount+.

For Paramount Global, making the show available on its own streaming service, Paramount+, appears to be a priority. Back in May, the company’s co-CEO Chris McCarthy announced during an earnings call with investors that the show would be available on the service in the U.S. as early as July. (At the time of this writing, Paramount+ is not currently carrying the series.) But fans looking to stream South Park’s back catalogue for the time being are not out of luck. Paramount Global, Stone, Parker, and Max negotiated a temporary extension of its earlier streaming deal, so the show’s first 26 seasons are still available on the platform.