Can the Paramount-Skydance saga be over already?
Photo: Comedy Central/Everett Collection
Oh my God, they killed Kenny! Internationally, that is. Paramount+ users outside the U.S. just lost access to all 26 seasons of South Park as well as several specials. Redditors and other social-media fans outside the U.S. have been aghast at the sudden removal of Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s beloved money-printing animated sitcom over the weekend — the latest chapter in the creators’ swear-word-spiced feud with Paramount in the wake of the company’s pending merger with Skydance.
For now, South Park’s international streaming license has expired, and fans across Canada, Latin America, Australia, the U.K., Ireland, France, Italy, and German-speaking Europe will have to find alternative methods to watch their favorite antics from Cartman, Kyle, Stan, and Kenny. In those markets, South Park’s specials are still on Paramount+ and on Comedy Central, at least. According to sources familiar with the matter, Paramount+ is in continued negotiations and hopes to have the series back up in international markets soon. In the meantime, however, the South Park sub-Reddit is full of threads with both shady streaming recommendations and trollish spitballs aimed at the Skydance and Paramount executives they see as Parker and Stone nemeses.
After Paramount-owned Comedy Central recently pushed back South Park’s premiere date for season 27, the creators fired back by claiming the prolonged merger situation was “fucking up” their show and impeding their ability to license the its back catalogue of episodes to the platforms owned by the likes of Warner Bros. Discovery and Netflix. Parker and Stone threatened legal action over the matter in a letter to Jeff Shell, prospective leader of the post-merger Paramount, according to The Hollywood Reporter. In the U.S., 26 seasons of the show are still on HBO Max because the creators negotiated a temporary license extension. It appears that doing the same to keep the show on Paramount+ internationally in the interim proved impossible.
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