Paramount Hits Back At Warner Bros, Files $50M Countersuit

Two months after Warner Bros. filed a lawsuit against Paramount over streaming rights to the long-running animated series “South Park,” Paramount Global has finally responded with a lawsuit of its own. In a countersuit filed in the New York Supreme Court, Paramount says Warner Bros. owes it more than $52 million in unpaid licensing fees.

“Through this Counterclaim, South Park Studios seeks to recover all of the unpaid license fees, totaling more than $52 million to date, based upon WarnerMedia’s blatant breaches of the Term Sheet,” the response and counterclaims document says. “In addition, based on WarnerMedia’s material breaches of contract, and its indications that it will continue to withhold the $225+ million in license fees still owed for the rest of the five-year term, South Park Studios is entitled to a declaratory judgment confirming the parties’ rights and obligations under the Term Sheet,” the dense 59-page filing adds.

“Further, WarnerMedia has given clear indications that it will not pay any of the remaining $225+ million in license fees still owed for the rest of the five-year term of the Term Sheet,” the document goes on to say. “Paramount Global certainly has not agreed that WarnerMedia can continue to disregard its contractual obligations in this manner.”

An HBO Max spokesperson told Deadline late Wednesday: “We believe that Paramount and South Park Digital Studios embarked on a multi-year scheme of unfair trade practices and deception, flagrantly and repeatedly breaching our contract, which clearly gave HBO Max exclusive streaming rights to the existing library and new content from the popular animated comedy South Park.”

With both sides fiercely claiming breach of contract on the other’s part and refusing to back down it seems unlikely this will be settled out of court.