South Park is in a contract tug-of-war between HBO Max and Paramount+.

Animated comedy series South Park has found itself at the center of a fierce legal battle over streaming rights. The creators of the show are well aware of the conundrum, and even lampshaded it themselves in their Streaming Wars specials, but the matter has become a bit more serious. Today, Warner Bros. Discovery announced that they had filed a lawsuit against Paramount over the ownership of South Park.

While South Park is owned by Comedy Central, and by extension Paramount, the show cut a deal with Warner Bros. Discovery back in 2019 to create a series of special episodes for the HBO Max streaming platform. However, while the show was on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Paramount launched its own streaming service, Paramount+, and called for the show’s back catalog to be

“We believe that Paramount and South Park Digital Studios embarked on a multi-year scheme of unfair trade practices and deception, flagrantly and repeatedly breaching our contract, which clearly gave HBO Max exclusive streaming rights to the existing library and new content from the popular animated comedy South Park,” HBO Max said in a statement.

According to a Paramount Global spokesperson, the company “continues to adhere to the parties’ contract by delivering new South Park episodes to HBO Max, despite the fact that Warner Bros. Discovery has failed and refused to pay license fees that it owes to Paramount for episodes that have already been delivered, and which HBO Max continues to stream.”

The precise damages Warner is seeking from the lawsuit have not been divulged.