Thanks to Paramount Global, South Park, Colorado could become a much safer place for secret fudge-packers.
Starting July 1st, the classic and iconoclastic comedy series South Park may finally have one streaming home following years of a divided catalog and many millions of dollars in legal fees. Back in 2019, the company formerly known as WarnerMedia secured a $500 million deal with the corporation soon to be known as ViacomCBS to stream the immense and valuable South Park library to the American market, only for ViacomCBS to become Paramount Global, launch its own streaming service and start producing streaming-exclusive South Park specials while what eventually became Warner Bros. Discovery seethed.
As of this summer, the contentious and confusing contract which divided the South Park streaming library and lined the pockets of both Paramount and WBD’s legal departments will finally be over, and the streaming availability of South Park will go through some serious changes. While another deal to allow HBO Max subscribers to watch some South Park content may be in the works, Paramount appears ready to consolidate the catalog of their most prized comedy property on Paramount+ — with a few possible exceptions.
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Following the news that Paramount+ will stream the entire South Park library starting in July, entertainment critic ArtieReviews reported that, when the entire South Park library hits Paramount+ on July 1st, American subscribers will find that a dozen additional episodes have been added to the infamous South Park ban list:
Even with all the corporate acrimony between South Park’s two streaming homes over the last five years, fans with deep pockets have still been able to stream almost every episode of South Park so long as they had subscriptions to both Max and Paramount+. The only banned South Park episodes that are currently unavailable to stream through any legal means are “Super Best Friends,” “Cartoon Wars Parts I and II,“ “200” and “201,” all of which featured depictions of — or allusions to a depiction of — a certain religious figure who shall remain un-depicted here.
While ArtieReviews’ ban list is yet-unconfirmed by Paramount itself, all of the episodes he listed are entries in the South Park catalog that are unavailable to stream on Paramount+ in non-U.S. markets where the company has retained full streaming control. Once Paramount Global regains a complete South Park streaming catalog, ArtieReviews believes that they will institute their international ban list, which would sadly make a lot of sense given the company’s current trajectory.
Right now, Paramount Global is in the process of securing a $28 billion sale to the media production and finance company Skydance, a merger that the Trump administration’s FCC has the power to kill. Recently, Paramount property 60 Minutes ran afoul of the President after refusing to back down on their independent political coverage, and Paramount just hamstrung a nonprofit political participation initiative by The Daily Show over concerns of partisan ties.
Given the billions of dollars that hang in the balance, it would be within the scope of Paramount Global’s goals for the media mega-company to censor any and all material that could prove politically problematic. So, if this proves to be the real South Park ban list, it may only be the beginning.
