Undeterred by past failures, Paramount continues screwing up its South Park deal

South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker have threatened Paramount with a lawsuit for futzing with their streaming negotiations.

By Matt Schimkowitz  |  June 23, 2025 | 5:17pm
Courtesy of Paramount+
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Undeterred by past failures, Paramount continues screwing up its South Park deal

Adding yet another complication to the never-ending war over South Park’s streaming rights, Park County, the entertainment company owned by South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, has threatened Paramount’s incoming president with a lawsuit. What’s another lawsuit in this complete clusterfuck of a situation that Paramount created by selling the streaming rights to the show to Warner Bros. Discovery in 2019 and then wanting them back for Paramount+? Well, this time, Stone and Parker, through their lawyers and per The Hollywood Reporter, accused Jeff Shell, an executive at RedBird Capital, who would become the president of Paramount if Skydance Media acquires Paramount, of tampering with Stone and Parker’s contract negotiations with WBD and Netflix. Apparently, Shell urged WBD to give Paramount+ a 12-month exclusive on new episodes and to cut its deal from 10 years to five in hopes of bringing down WBD’s bid. In a letter obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, lawyers for Stone and Parker demanded that Shell, Redbird, and Skydance “immediately cease [their] interference.” Meanwhile, Skydance maintains that it has the “right to approve material contracts.”

Let’s clear a few things up. Stone and Parker own an entertainment company called Park County. They are also in partnership with Paramount through South Park Digital Studios, which owns the show’s streaming rights. Attorneys for Park County accuse Shell of operating on behalf of Paramount to bolster the studio’s bid to get the show on Paramount+. Since the merger remains pending, Park County says Shell is restricted from using confidential information to make demands on behalf of South Park Digital Studios, which Park County’s lawyers say “even Paramount has no right to make.”

Paramount still has two years left on its $900 million overall deal with the show, which allows it to air new episodes on television and test the meaning of the word “episode” through its various South Park “event” presentations. Ultimately, the studio would like to keep South Park and, more specifically, would like to get the show on Paramount+, exclusively. But if it keeps undercutting its business partners, it might make this already contentious and bewildering arrangement untenable.

 
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