In a dispute over the streaming rights to the animated show South Park, Warner Bros. Discovery filed a lawsuit against Paramount Global on Friday on behalf of its streaming service subsidiary HBO Max.

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Warner Bros. Discovery filed the suit in New York Supreme Court for the County of New York, accusing streaming service Paramount+ of violating the terms of a 2019 licensing deal, granting HBO Max exclusive streaming rights to the half-hour cartoon comedy show.

The lawsuit also names South Park Digital Studios and MTV Entertainment as defendants, accusing them of violating the terms of the $500 million licensing deal.

SPDS is a joint venture formed by Paramount and South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

Warner Bros. Discovery contends the deal gave it exclusive rights to stream both the show's historical catalog, as well as new episodes, with a promise of 10 new shows per year.

In the lawsuit, it says Paramount, MTV and SPDS worked together to produce South Park content that fell outside the scope of the licensing deal, accusing them of "grammatical sleight-of-hand," according to the court documents.

At issue are a handful of shows that Paramount labeled as specials, rather than traditional episodes and released on its own Paramount+ streaming service.

The lawsuit also contends a breach of contract, as the show's 24th season only contains two episodes, both labeled specials, which aired during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in September 2020 and March 2021. The licensing deal stipulated 10 new episodes were to be delivered each season.

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Warner Bros. Discovery has now stopped paying licensing fees on some episodes, calling Paramount's actions a "calculated and deliberate attempt" to circumvent the 2019 deal, to boost viewership on its own platform.

"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," Warner Bros. Discovery told NBC in a statement.

In response to the lawsuit, Paramount said it has not broken any rules.

"We believe these claims are without merit and look forward to demonstrating so through the legal process," the company said in a statement to NBC.

"We also note that Paramount 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."

Season 25 of South Park debuted on Feb. 8 on Paramount's Comedy Central cable channel, through its MTV Entertainment Group unit.