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AT&T to Pay About $500 Million for ‘South Park’ Rights

AT&T to Pay About $500 Million for ‘South Park’ Rights

(Bloomberg) -- AT&T Inc.’s WarnerMedia acquired the exclusive U.S. streaming rights to the animated hit “South Park” for its new HBO Max service, the latest blockbuster content acquisition in a war to challenge Netflix Inc.

WarnerMedia is paying roughly $500 million for the rights, according to a person familiar with the deal. It faced off against at least a half-dozen prospective buyers, including Comcast Corp.’s Peacock service and Walt Disney Co.’s Hulu, the current owner of the streaming rights.

AT&T to Pay About $500 Million for ‘South Park’ Rights

All episodes from the previous 23 seasons of the show will be available on HBO Max starting in June, and new episodes will debut on the service 24 hours after they air on Viacom Inc.’s Comedy Central. “South Park” will continue to stream on Hulu until then.

More than two decades after its debut in 1997, “South Park” remains one of the most-watched comedies on cable and a particular treasure of young men, and HBO Max is hoping the show will persuade those fans to sign up for a new streaming service. The library of more than 300 episodes will also give viewers more than 100 hours of programming to watch in between other dramas, comedies, movies and standup specials.

The price is comparable to what Comcast paid to license “The Office” for Peacock and what AT&T paid to grab “Friends” for HBO Max. Both of those programs are on Netflix for now. Netflix responded by paying more than $500 million for worldwide rights to “Seinfeld.”

HBO Max has been spending liberally on programming, landing titles from “The Big Bang Theory” to “Sesame Street,” as it gears up to take on Netflix and new streaming entries such as Disney+ and Apple TV+.

“South Park is unequivocally among the best -- setting the satirical gold standard, with a consistent finger on the comedy pulse,” Kevin Reilly, HBO Max’s chief content officer, said in a statement.

The announcement of “South Park” kicked off a presentation for investors hosted by Reilly, his boss Bob Greenblatt and the higher-ups from Dallas-based AT&T. The telecom giant welcomed the media to Warner Bros., its 96-year-old Hollywood studio, to unveil the look and programming slate of HBO Max.

To contact the reporter on this story: Lucas Shaw in Los Angeles at lshaw31@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net, John J. Edwards III

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