South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, have reached a landmark $1.5bn (£1.1bn) deal for the streaming rights to their long-running animated comedy show.
It has been reported that Paramount has purchased the global streaming rights to long-running animation, and the series will be available on the company’s digital streaming service, Paramount+.
This will be the first time that South Park has been available on Paramount+ in the US. The deal will also restore the show to the platform in several foreign countries, having been pulled last week as the licence expired amid negotiations.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the agreement was struck by Parker and Stone’s Park County production company, and is said to be worth at least $300m a year over a five-year period. The report also states that Parker and Stone have agreed to produce 10 new episodes of South Park a year.
In June, the show’s $500m exclusive streaming deal with HBO Max expired. Paramount Global, the parent company of Comedy Central – on which South Park has aired since its 1997 premiere – has long angled for the series to exist on its own streaming service, Paramount+.
However, the streaming rights to South Park have been shopped around to other companies, including Netflix and HBO Max parent company Warner Bros Discovery.
Negotiations for the South Park deal have dragged on in recent months and have delayed the premiere of season 27 of the show.
The network announced on 2 July that instead of a 9 July premiere date, fans will have to wait until 23 July. It has been over two years since the last season of South Park aired, leaving many people, including Parker and Stone, fuming.
“This merger is a s***show and it’s f***ing up South Park,” the creators previously said in a joint statement posted to the show’s official X account. “We are at the studio working on new episodes and we hope the fans get to see them somehow.”
The talks were delayed by a pending merger between Paramount and Skydance, which will see the combined company valued at around $28bn.
Parker and Stone have been renegotiating a new overall deal with Paramount, which will allow them to keep making new episodes for Comedy Central beyond their current agreement, which runs through 2027.
The duo inked a deal with Paramount+ in 2021 for a reported $900m to extend South Park through to 2027, renewing the show on Comedy Central up to season 30.
