Business
'South Park' dispute escalates as creators accuse Paramount's buyers of meddling
The team behind Comedy Central’s “South Park” raised allegations that Skydance Media and its associates overstepped their authority by meddling in Paramount Global’s business before they take control of the storied company.
The Los Angeles Times previously reported that negotiations over a “South Park” streaming deal have stalled amid Paramount’s protracted $8-billion sale to David Ellison’s Skydance Media. Skydance balked at a proposed $2-billion overall deal with “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, sources have said.
Federal securities laws forbid “gun-jumping,” a term that describes a company that exerts too much control over a business it is in the process of buying before the transaction closes. Under the terms of the merger deal, Paramount gave Skydance the ability to approve major deals while the sale is pending.
But this week, Park County — the business entity behind the long-running satirical cartoon — alleged that Ellison’s associates crossed the line by interfering with its negotiations with other companies.
In a series of letters, Park County questioned the conduct of Jeff Shell, a former NBCUniversal chief executive who is part of Ellison’s bidding team. Shell is a senior executive with RedBird Capital Partners, a private equity firm that is helping Skydance finance the Paramount deal.
In a Tuesday letter to RedBird’s general counsel, which was viewed by The Times, Park County’s lawyers accused Shell of committing “intrusive, unauthorized, and gun jumping misconduct” by inserting himself into the auction for “South Park” streaming rights and attempting to depress the show’s value.
The lawyers contended that “not one word” in the 160-page sale agreement between Skydance and Paramount authorized Skydance or Redbird to “intrude” into negotiations over “South Park” streaming deals.
“This misconduct is already causing destruction not only to the business of ‘South Park’… but also the productive decades-long relationship between artists and studio on an iconic show,” the lawyers wrote.
A spokeswoman for Skydance disputed misconduct by Shell, adding, “Any accusation that Jeff Shell tried to lower the price or devalue the franchise in any way is not only nonsensical but patently false.”
“Under the terms of the transaction agreement, Skydance has the right to approve material contracts,” the spokeswoman continued.
The dispute comes as the “South Park” creators work to line up a new streaming deal after its five-year pact with Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max service ended this week. Paramount wants to make the long-running Comedy Central show available on its Paramount+ platform. However, given the high cost of the show, Paramount wants to share the rights to the 333 episodes with another streaming service.
Knowledgeable people have said they expect “South Park” distribution fees to be valued at more than $200 million a year.
But Skydance hasn’t signed off, believing the deals to be too rich, according to multiple sources. Paramount executives think the show is worth the big bucks, given its enduring global popularity and legacy.
Park County has alleged Shell inserted himself into negotiations with two prospective partners: Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery. Both have expressed interest in licensing the show.
Park County accused Shell of calling executives at those companies to lower their bids for “South Park,” which would deprive Parker, Stone and Paramount of a higher licensing fee.
Paramount owns half of a joint venture called South Park Digital Studios, which controls the streaming rights to the show. Stone and Parker control the other half of the venture that dates back to 2007.
“Mr. Shell’s proposed changes worsen the deal for South Park Digital Studios, and they appear to be designed to cheapen the business of Skydance Media’s acquisition target, Paramount Global,” Park County lawyer Joseph R. Taylor wrote in a Monday letter to Paramount executives.
“This misconduct is already causing destruction not only to the business of South Park through depressing offers for the [Subscription Video On Demand] rights, but also the productive decades-long relationship between artists and studio on an iconic show,” Taylor wrote. “Further misconduct of this nature will naturally force legal action.”
Two sources close to the matter said that Skydance has objected to the 10-year span of the proposed deals with Paramount+ and Max (soon to be renamed HBO Max) as well as the 10-year span for the overall deal with Parker and Stone. Skydance, the sources said, preferred five-year deals due to changes in the market.
Max’s current deal to stream “South Park” ended this week. However, due to the company’s interest in bidding for the rights, the episodes will remain on the service until a new deal can be worked out, said one person close to the company who was not authorized to speak publicly.
Paramount leaders want to lock down “South Park” streaming rights in the U.S. and abroad and were interested in extending Paramount’s $900-million overall deal with the “South Park” creators to guarantee the production of new episodes. But that deal doesn’t expire for another two years, and Skydance executives don’t want to extend that deal before they take control of Paramount, according to sources.
New episodes run first on Paramount’s basic cable network Comedy Central.
“South Park” is one of Paramount’s most important TV franchises. Along with “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart, the four boys from the fictional Colorado hamlet of South Park put Comedy Central on the map for basic cable viewers.
During a May earnings call, Paramount co-Chief Executive Chris McCarthy — who runs Paramount’s media networks as well as Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios — told investors that “South Park” episodes would begin streaming on Paramount+ in July, although that deal has not been nailed down.
Nike is cutting about 1,400 jobs in its operations division, mostly from its technology department, the company said Thursday.
In a note to employees, Venkatesh Alagirisamy, the chief operating officer of Nike, said that management was nearly done reorganizing the business for its turnaround plan, and that the goal was to operate with “more speed, simplicity and precision.”
“This is not a new direction,” Mr. Alagirisamy told employees. “It is the next phase of the work already underway.”
Nike, the world’s largest sportswear company, is trying to recover after missteps led to a prolonged sales slump, in which the brand leaned into lifestyle products and away from performance shoes and apparel. Elliott Hill, the chief executive, has worked to realign the company around sports and speed up product development to create more breakthrough innovations.
In March, Nike told investors that it expected sales to fall this year, with growth in North America offset by poor performance in Asia, where the brand is struggling to rejuvenate sales in China. Executives said at the time that more volatility brought on by the war in the Middle East and rising oil prices might continue to affect its business.
The reorganization has involved cuts across many parts of the organization, including at its headquarters in Beaverton, Ore. Nike slashed some corporate staff last year and eliminated nearly 800 jobs at distribution centers in January.
“You never want to have to go through any sort of layoffs, but to re-center the company, we’re doing some of that,” Mr. Hill said in an interview earlier this year.
Mr. Alagirisamy told employees that Nike was reshaping its technology team and centering employees at its headquarters and a tech center in Bengaluru, India. The layoffs will affect workers across North America, Europe and Asia.
The cuts will also affect staffing in Nike’s factories for Air, the company’s proprietary cushioning system. Employees who work on the supply chain for raw materials will also experience changes as staff is integrated into footwear and apparel teams.
Nike’s Converse brand, which has struggled for years to revive sales, will move some of its engineering resources closer to the factories they support, the company said.
Mr. Alagirisamy said the moves were necessary to optimize Nike’s supply chain, deploy technology faster and bolster relationships with suppliers.
A bill that would have required insurers to offer coverage to homeowners who take steps to reduce wildfire risk on their property died in the Legislature.
The Senate Insurance Committee on Monday voted down the measure, SB 1076, one of the most ambitious bills spurred by the devastating January 2025 wildfires.
The vote came despite fire victims and others rallying at the state Capitol in support of the measure, authored by state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez (D-Pasadena), whose district includes the Eaton fire zone.
The Insurance Coverage for Fire-Safe Homes Act originally would have required insurers to offer and renew coverage for any home that meets wildfire-safety standards adopted by the insurance commissioner starting Jan. 1, 2028.
It also threatened insurers with a five-year ban from the sale of home or auto insurance if they did not comply, though it allowed for exceptions.
However, faced with strong opposition from the insurance industry, Pérez had agreed to amend the bill so it would have established community-wide pilot projects across the state to better understand the most effective way to limit property and insurance losses from wildfires.
Insurers would have had to offer four years of coverage to homeowners in successful pilot projects.
Denni Ritter, a vice president of the American Property Casualty Insurance Assn., told the committee that her trade group opposed the bill.
“While we appreciate the intent behind those conversations, those concepts do not remove our opposition, because they retain the same core flaw — substituting underwriting judgment and solvency safeguards with a statutory mandate to accept risk,” she said.
In voting against the bill Sen. Laura Richardson, (D-San Pedro), said: “Last I heard, in the United States, we don’t require any company to do anything. That’s the difference between capitalism and communism, frankly.”
The remarks against the measure prompted committee Chair Sen. Steve Padilla, (D-Chula Vista), to chastise committee members in opposition.
“I’m a little perturbed, and I’m a little disappointed, because you have someone who is trying to work with industry, who is trying to get facts and data,” he said.
Monday’s vote was the fourth time a bill that would have required insurers to offer coverage to so-called “fire hardened” homes failed in the Legislature since 2020, according to an analysis by insurance committee staff.
Fire hardening includes measures such as cutting back brush, installing fire resistant roofs and closing eaves to resist fire embers.
Pérez’s legislation was thought to have a better chance of passage because it followed the most catastrophic wildfires in U.S. history, which damaged or destroyed more than 18,000 structures and killed 31 people.
The bill was co-sponsored by the Los Angeles advocacy group Consumer Watchdog and Every Fire Survivor’s Network, a community group founded in Altadena after the fires formerly called the Eaton Fire Survivors Network.
But it also had broad support from groups such as the California Apartment Association, the California Nurses Association and California Environmental Voters.
Leading up to the fires, many insurers, citing heightened fire risk, had dropped policyholders in fire-prone neighorhoods. That forced them onto the California FAIR Plan, the state’s insurer of last resort, which offers limited but costly policies.
A Times analysis found that that in the Palisades and Eaton fire zones, the FAIR Plan’s rolls from 2020 to 2024 nearly doubled from 14,272 to 28,440. Mandating coverage has been seen as a way of reducing FAIR Plan enrollment.
“I’m disappointed this bill died in committee. Fire survivors deserved better,” Pérez said in a statement .
Also failing Monday in the committee was SB 982, a bill authored by Sen. Scott Wiener, (D-San Francisco). It would have authorized California’s attorney general to sue fossil fuel companies to recover losses from climate-induced disasters. It was opposed by the oil and gas industry.
Passing the committee were two other Pérez bills. SB 877 requires insurers to provide more transparency in the claims process. SB 878 imposes a penalty on insurers who don’t make claims payments on time.
Another bill, SB 1301, authored by insurance commissioner candidate Sen. Ben Allen, (D-Pacific Palisades), also passed. It protects policyholders from unexplained and abrupt policy non-renewals.
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Politicians in Washington and the reporters who cover them have an often adversarial relationship.
But on the last Saturday in April, they gather for an irreverent celebration of press freedom and the First Amendment at the Washington Hilton Hotel: The White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
Hosted by the association, an organization that helps ensure access for media outlets covering the presidency, the dinner attracts Hollywood stars; politicians from both parties; and representatives of more than 100 networks, newspapers, magazines and wire services.
While The Times will have two reporters in the ballroom covering the event, the company no longer buys seats at the party, said Richard W. Stevenson, the Washington bureau chief. The decision goes back almost two decades; the last dinner The Times attended as an organization was in 2007.
“We made a judgment back then that the event had become too celebrity-focused and was undercutting our need to demonstrate to readers that we always seek to maintain a proper distance from the people we cover, many of whom attend as guests,” he said.
It’s a decision, he added, that “we have stuck by through both Republican and Democratic administrations, although we support the work of the White House Correspondents’ Association.”
Susan Wessling, The Times’s Standards editor, said the policy is a product of the organization’s desire to maintain editorial independence.
“We don’t want to leave readers with any questions about our independence and credibility by seeming to be overly friendly with people whose words and actions we need to report on,” she said.
The celebrity mentalist Oz Pearlman is headlining the evening, in lieu of the usual comedy set by the likes of Stephen Colbert and Hasan Minhaj, but all eyes will be on President Trump, who will make his first appearance at the dinner as president.
Mr. Trump has boycotted the event since 2011, when he was the butt of punchlines delivered by President Barack Obama and the talk show host Seth Meyers mocking his hair, his reality TV show and his preoccupation with the “birther” movement.
Last month, though, Mr. Trump, who has a contentious relationship with the media, announced his intention to attend this year’s dinner, where he will speak to a room full of the same reporters he often derides as “enemies of the people.”
Times reporters will be there to document the highs, the lows and the reactions in the room. A reporter for the Styles desk has also been assigned to cover the robust roster of after-parties around Washington.
Some off-duty reporters from The Times will also be present at this late-night circuit, though everyone remains cognizant of their roles, said Patrick Healy, The Times’s assistant managing editor for Standards and Trust.
“If they’re reporting, there’s a notebook or recorder out as usual,” he said. “If they’re not, they’re pros who know they’re always identifiable as Times journalists.”
For most of The Times’s reporters and editors, though, the evening will be experienced from home.
“The rest of us will be able to follow the coverage,” Mr. Stevenson said, “without having to don our tuxes or gowns.”
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