South Park pulled off streaming in Australia amid $US3 billion deal caught in the Paramount Skydance merger

If you go onto Paramount+ right now and type in South Park in the search bar, it will bring up plenty of results.

There’s South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, South Park: The Streaming Wars Part 1 and Part 2, South Park: The End of Obesity, and South Park: Not Suitable for Children. They’re all one-off specials.

What you won’t find is the actual show.

The 300-plus episodes of the regular series has been pulled off the platform and the upcoming season 27 premiere, which has already been pushed back once to July 23, is in jeopardy.

Last week, Paramount’s licence to stream the series internationally expired and it hasn’t been renewed or extended as South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker go to war with Paramount Global over a deal worth reportedly $US3 billion.

That figure, according to The Hollywood Reporter, is a 10-year overall agreement Stone and Parker has been hashing out with Paramount Global, to come into effect after the current deal expires, which was worth $US900 million in 2027. The new agreement will be worth three times as much.

Paramount Global owns Comedy Central, which has been the broadcast home of South Park since 1997.

At the core of the dispute is the pending acquisition of Paramount Global by Skydance and Red Bird Capital.

Parker and Stone have accused incoming president Jeff Shell of “interfering” with the agreement before the keys have been handed over. According to THR, one of the sticking points is the Skydance team are only interested in a five-year deal, citing the many changes afoot in media.

The pair have also alleged that Shell inserted himself in their contract negotiations with Warner Bros Discovery and Netflix, which has the streaming rights to some South Park titles in the US.

There appears to be some conflict over whether Skydance has any right to have a hand in any of these deals. On the one hand, Skydance argued that under the transaction terms it has the right “to approve material contracts”.

On the other side, US federal law should prohibit Skydance from taking control or making decisions until after the merger closed.

Puck’s Matt Belloni reported yesterday that Parker and Stone have hired Byran Freedman as their lawyer. If the name sounds familiar, it should – Freedman is a take-no-prisoners, high-profile Hollywood lawyer who is, among other big cases in the past, representing Justin Baldoni in his actions against Blake Lively.

With legal threats from the Stone and Parker camp, the dispute seems headed for court.

Parker and Stone wrote in a July 2 post on social media, “This merger is a sh-tshow and it’s f—king up South Park. We are at the studio working on new episodes and we hope the fans get to see them somehow.”

Delay of the acquisition is no small part behind this brouhaha.

Paramount majority shareholder Shari Redstone, whose father Sumner bought the business in 1994, put the company up for sale in late 2023. Skydance, which is owned by Oracle founder Larry Ellison’s son David, was one of the suitors alongside the likes of Warner Bros Discovery, Sony Pictures and Allen Media Group.

Skydance and Paramount have worked together on several projects including Top Gun: Maverick.

A merger deal should have been relatively straightforward, although it went through several rounds back-and-forth and almost fell apart during negotiations.

But then another obstacle appeared: Donald Trump. The merger requires the approval of the Federal Communications Commission, which is now controlled by the Trump Administration and his appointees.

During the 2024 US election, 60 Minutes, which is broadcast on the Paramount-owned broadcast channel CBS, ran an interview between journalist Bill Whitaker and Kamala Harris. After it aired, a right-wing group called the Center for American Rights filed a complaint with the FCC, alleging the segment “favoured” Ms Harris.

The FCC dismissed the complaint but once the Trump Administration took over, its new commissioner Brendan Carr revived the case.

Mr Trump sued CBS over the interview, and ultimately Paramount agreed to settle for $US16 million which included his legal fees with the remainder to be paid to his future presidential library. It did not include an apology.

The lawsuit, along with another Mr Trump levied against the Disney-owned ABC network, was viewed by some as to have a chilling effect on freedom of the press in the US, especially as it was seen to be a hurdle Paramount had to clear before the FCC would approve its Skydance merger.

Stephen Colbert, whose late-night show airs on CBS, called the settlement a “big fat bribe”. He said this week, “As someone who has always been a proud employee of this network, I am offended and I don’t know if anything will ever repair my trust in this company.

“But just taking a stab at it, I’d say $16 million would help.”