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If prolific producers Shonda Rhimes, Ryan Murphy and Greg Berlanti are worth a combined $ 900 million through their global deals, how Trey Parker and Matt Stone – who oversaw a show, South Park, score over $ 900 million on their own?
The answer to this dates back to the duo’s 2007 deal with Comedy Central. Around this time, Parker and Stone – along with their longtime attorney, Kevin Morris – negotiated an ad-sharing deal with the Viacom-owned cable network that gave Colorado natives a 50-50 share with Comedy Central on all digital income. Back then, “digital rights” was not a conversation in the negotiation. Now, as Scarlett Johansson and Disney can attest, this is the centerpiece of every deal as media companies prioritize their in-house streaming services.
So in 2019, when HBO Max spent $ 550 million to become the exclusive national streaming house of South ParkThe entire library of 23+ seasons, Parker and Stone have cashed in $ 275 million. Fourteen years ago, receiving 50 percent of all non-television income seemed absurd. Now those digital rights – which include video games and other activities – along with ViacomCBS’s need to bolster its streamer, Paramount +, have helped creators secure one of the biggest deals in the history of the world. television. Over the years, Parker and Stone have reaped their winnings. Comedy Central licensed South Park to Hulu in back-to-back deals worth $ 87.5 million and $ 110 million.
The value of South ParkThe library of has only skyrocketed in recent years – fueled by new seasons of the series which still makes headlines in its 23rd season – as streaming services build on hits like Friends and Office to attract subscribers. Paramount +, the ViacomCBS-owned streamer who rebranded earlier this year and still lags behind HBO Max by a year despite being seven years ahead as CBS All Access, wins 14 Made for Streaming. South Park films as part of the extended August 5 all-cash deal with Parker and Stone.
Sources say the six-year, $ 935 million deal includes upfront payments for features, bonuses and a renewal that takes South Park through its 29th season. ViacomCBS – which still has to cover the production costs of South Park – was in talks to buy the Parker company and Stone’s Park County in a deal that sources said could have exceeded $ 1 billion and given full ownership of the show’s conglomerate with a deal for them lucrative international rights to come.
“[Parker and Stone] took out a mortgage instead of selling the house, ”says a source familiar with the matter.
While Rhimes, Berlanti, and Murphy each receive bonuses as their series’ production increases, Parker and Stone received an upfront cash payment that will keep them with ViacomCBS until 2027. Oh, and there’s another deal. nine digits on the horizon as national broadcast rights to South Park will return in the summer of 2025 when Paramount + – which lost to HBO Max for the library in 2019 – will have no choice but to save the Brinks truck to bring the hit series home.
A version of this story appeared in the August 11 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
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