I’m sure you’ve all seen the monumental deal that went down last week involving Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s South Park in a new agreement with Paramount. If you haven’t seen the news, Paramount just paid $1.5B for 50 episodes of South Park, along with global rights to the entire back catalog, for the next five years. That’s an insane number for just 50 episodes and streaming rights, which I don’t think anyone saw coming. Especially after watching the episode that aired last week.
Why Is This Important?
The biggest reason Trey and Matt were able to retain all of the leverage in this negotiation is because they still own all of the intellectual property rights to South Park, something not all artists are able to accomplish.
So as you can imagine, this puts the guys in a great position to do these types of deals and keep most of the money. I’ve talked about this before, but if Jackass the show had launched on YouTube, it would look a lot different today than it does on Paramount+. Dickhouse Productions, the studio behind Jackass, is a subsidiary of MTV (currently owned by Paramount). They don’t have the same kind of freedom that the South Park creators have.
What Does This Mean For Creators?
It’s been an active few months for creators in the streaming space. Everyone knows that MrBeast sold the second and third seasons of Beast Games to Amazon, while still retaining the rights. There have also been a number of licensing deals across Netflix from the creator economy. The ones that stand out to me are Cocomelon, Ms. Rachel, and a laundry list of other creator-led shows that are soon to be announced. Thankfully, in these examples, the shows were originally created on YouTube. The founders were able to self-fund, retain all of the IP rights, and license that content to streaming platforms while continuing to own the intellectual property.
Pictured: CoComelon Lane (Netflix), Inside S2 (Netflix), The Amazing Digital Circus (GLITCH), Ms. Rachel (Netflix)
Credit: Whats On Netflix
I don’t think this is going to become the norm. It’s more challenging than ever to license content. Fewer shows are being made, and it’s harder to find the money to get projects funded. Most people end up selling to streaming services, studios, and the TV networks that are still operating, and in the process, giving up their ownership.
The Big Takeaway
The South Park deal is a reminder that some artists have managed to retain their IP rights in the traditional world. Trey Parker and Matt Stone can strike billion-dollar agreements while keeping a majority of the economics. Some films and shows, unfortunately, don’t have that luxury. They end up selling to streaming services, studios, or TV networks, which then retain the rights to those shows. But there are creators standing out today, like Ms. Rachel and Cocomelon, who have been able to create and own something they can license back to the streaming platforms.
Each week, I’m going to hand the mic to an individual and let them talk about whatever they want. This week, I talked to AJ and Big Justice, the father and son duo known for their “BOOM or DOOM” reviews, Costco hauls, and family-friendly lifestyle content. They wanted to talk about motivation and the four pillars of success they live by. BOOM!
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