Inside the $3 Billion ‘South Park' Fight That May Blow Up Its Future

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9 hours ago

The premiere for the 27th season of South Park later this month is in serious doubt amid wrangling between series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Paramount Global and incoming studio owner Skydance, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
At the heart of the dispute: a new 10-year, $3 billion overall deal for Parker and Stone that would more than triple the valuation of the current deal that expires in 2027, according to people familiar with the situation. Park County, the South Park pair's entertainment company, believes it struck a basic framework with Paramount Global on an agreement. 'I think that Paramount pre-acquisition was interested in a broader range of possibilities than would have been approved by Skydance and Redbird,' an insider close to the negotiations says.
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But Skydance, which maintains that it has approval rights on contracts as it pursues regulatory approval of its merger with Paramount, has other plans. The duration of the proposed deal has emerged as a sticking point in negotiations, with Skydance refusing to an extension beyond five additional years amid a fast-moving media environment in which it's prioritizing cash reserves.
'There is no resolution at this time, but all involved recognize the need for a quick, positive resolution,' a spokesperson for Park County said on Monday. Skydance and Paramount declined to comment. A Skydance rep had previously told THR that 'under the terms of the transaction agreement, Skydance has the right to approve material contracts.'
It's increasingly likely that the dispute ends up in court. Parker and Stone have brought on Bryan Freedman, a prominent lawyer and bulldog negotiator known for aggressive legal maneuvering, to tee up what could be a lawsuit accusing the Skydance regime — including CEO David Ellison and Jeff Shell, the RedBird Capital executive who'll be the president of new Paramount if the merger is greenlit — of interfering in contract negotiations. The alternative involves a public relations battle in which Skydance could see its name splashed across headlines as an another example of an entertainment merger gone sour.
The potential delay to the season 27 premiere, which has already been pushed back two weeks later than originally planned to July 23, has surfaced as the most visible example of the damage caused by the delay to approval of the Paramount-Skydance merger. The relationship between Parker and Stone, among the most sought-after creative duos in Hollywood, and Skydance is in question, as is the future of the show after more than 28 years and 300 episodes.
'This merger is a shitshow and it's fucking up South Park. We are at the studio working on new episodes and we hope the fans get to see them somehow,'' Parker and Stone wrote in a social media post on July 2.
South Park is owned by Paramount, with streaming rights owned through a joint venture Parker and Stone operate with the company called South Park Digital Studios, which is governed by a five-member board of managers that includes Paramount affiliate Comedy Partners. The series is produced by Park County.
Park County has an extraordinarily unusual deal, dating back to 2007, that gives the company about 50 percent of streaming revenue through the joint venture. South Park was a juggernaut on linear TV and on DVD when streaming video was still nascent. Park County began streaming episodes on a dedicated website with advertising support, though later premium subscription services like Netflix, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video and, of course, Paramount+, would change how streaming videos were monetized dramatically.
Streaming deals for the show expired on June 23, forcing an extension of a domestic deal with Warner Bros. Discovery to keep it on HBO Max for now. Last week, Paramount+'s international license to stream episodes of the long-running animated series expired, which led to the streamer pulling the series from its global service.
Paramount and Park County are both taking a hard-line stance in negotiations. When they resumed discussions recently, Kevin Morris, a lawyer for Park County, refused to budge from a decade-long deal worth at least $3 billion. In recent years, Morris became a nationally known figure for his years-long legal and financial support for Hunter Biden.
Paramount's Chris McCarthy, who runs the company with two other co-CEOs, oversees the streaming and television programming side of the studio and COO Keyes Hill-Edgar negotiates on deals.
The Paramount-Skydance deal has been held up in large part due to its own political dimension involving President Donald Trump and a lawsuit against 60 Minutes over an interview with Kamala Harris.
One possible factor in the negotiations: an $800 million loan that Park County took in 2023 from private equity firm the Carlyle Group. Parker and Stone could be squeezed for cash to repay roughly $80 million in interest per year, according to one person knowledgeable of the arrangement, who noted that Paramount may be open to paying more than $150 million annually in a new deal but not for 10 years.
By Skydance's thinking, the interim operating agreement affords the company the right to approve — and deny — all material contracts. Park County has maintained that Skydance is barred from taking control and issuing directives until the merger's official closure. A legal battle is brewing.
'We hereby demand that you, Redbird, and Skydance immediately cease your interference,' stated the letter Park County sent to Shell on June 21. 'If these activities continue, we will have no choice but to act to both protect our rights and discharge any obligations we may have to the public.'
July 14, 8:18 p.m. Updated to characterize the new 10-year, $3 billion overall deal as more than tripling the valuation of the previous deal.
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