Technologies

South Park Locks Into Paramount Plus With $1.5B Streaming Deal

The creators of the animated series signed a deal to bring their show to Paramount Plus.

South Park fans have at least five more years of Cartman, Stan, Kyle and Kenny to look forward to. Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of the long-running animated show South Park, have locked in a five-year deal to bring their show to the Paramount Plus streaming service and to give Paramount global streaming rights.

The duo will keep making 10 episodes per year, as reported in the Los Angeles Times; this deal replaces the one that the franchise had with HBO Max and its parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery. The South Park team was locked in negotiations for months for what would have been a $3 billion, 10-year deal, according to previous reports.

The deal covers only streaming rights and doesn’t include merchandising or what the pair’s production company Park County gets in a separate deal with Comedy Central to keep the show running on that network.

The show’s 27th season was delayed to July 23 because of the behind-the-scenes maneuvering involving an ongoing acquisition of Paramount by Skydance Media. The TV series began on Comedy Central in 1997.

Parker and Stone will take the stage at San Diego Comic-Con the day after the show’s premiere on July 24 for a panel with Saturday Night Live alum Andy Samberg and Beavis and Butt-Head creator Mike Judge.

What this means for TV viewers and the streaming industry

Paramount’s investment in South Park is «a bold bet on the future of streaming,» Jason Fairchild, CEO of tvScientific, a television advertising company, tells CNET.

«While other parts of the media landscape are consolidating or trimming fat, Paramount is doubling down on exclusive IP to anchor its platform and compete for attention in a crowded market,» Fairchild says.

Other streaming competitors including Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video have cut deals for sports programming and global content, he says. «The underlying strategy is clear: own the content that drives subscriptions and engagement.»

Viewers, Fairchild says, could increasingly rely on ad-supported tiers of streaming services if they feel they can’t afford access to all the premium content they want across a fragmented field of paid streamers.

Seth Schachner, a former Sony executive who is now managing director at Strat Americas, a Los Angeles consulting firm, said Paramount’s deal «looks like a very forward-looking one, closer to what Netflix might look to do than what a traditional studio would do.»

The deal, Schachner says, could be the start of a trend for more direct creator-streamer deals.

«It would not surprise me if this agreement becomes a template for other big ticket programs which studios want to keep,» he says.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Wednesday, Jan. 28

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Jan. 28.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Remove from a position of power
Answer: OUST

5A clue: Not cool
Answer: UNHIP

7A clue: «Fine, see if ___!»
Answer: ICARE

8A clue: Kind of bored
Answer: JADED

9A clue: Primatologist’s subjects
Answer: APES

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Kind of board
Answer: OUIJA

2D clue: Prepare to use, as a pen
Answer: UNCAP

3D clue: Desirable place to sit on a hot day
Answer: SHADE

4D clue: Pair on a bicycle
Answer: TIRES

6D clue: ___ Xing (street sign)
Answer: PED

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Jan. 28, #492

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Jan. 28, No. 492.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a tough one. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Stats about an athlete.

Green group hint: Where to watch games.

Blue group hint: There used to be a ballpark.

Purple group hint: Names are hidden in these words.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Player bio information.

Green group: Sports streamers.

Blue group: Former MLB ballparks.

Purple group: Ends in a Hall of Fame QB.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is player bio information. The four answers are alma mater, height, number and position.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is sports streamers. The four answers are Netflix, Paramount, Peacock and Prime.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is former MLB ballparks. The four answers are Ebbets, Kingdome, Three Rivers and Tiger.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ends in a Hall of Fame QB. The four answers are forewarner, Harbaugh, honeymoon and outmanning.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

Technologies

Google Rolls Out Expanded Theft Protection Features for Android Devices

The latest Android security update makes it harder for thieves to break into stolen phones, with stronger biometric requirements and smarter lockouts.

Google on Tuesday announced a significant update to its Android theft-protection arsenal, introducing new tools and settings aimed at making stolen smartphones harder for criminals to access and exploit. The updates, detailed on Google’s official security blog, build on Android’s existing protections and add both stronger defenses and more flexible user controls.

Smartphones carry your most sensitive data, from banking apps to personal photos, and losing your device to theft can quickly escalate into identity and financial fraud. To counter that threat, Google is layering multiple protective features that work before, during and after a theft.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

At the center of the update is a revamped Failed Authentication Lock. Previously introduced in Android 15, this feature now gets its own toggle in Android 16 settings, letting you decide whether your phone should automatically lock itself after repeated incorrect PIN or biometric attempts. This gives you more control over how aggressively your phone defends against brute-force guessing without weakening security.

Google is also beefing up biometric security across the platform. A feature called Identity Check, originally rolled out in earlier Android versions, has been broadened to apply to all apps and services that use Android’s Biometric Prompt — the pop-up that asks for your fingerprint or face to confirm it’s really you — including third-party banking apps and password managers. This means that even if a thief somehow bypasses your lock screen, they’ll face an additional biometric barrier before accessing sensitive apps.

On the recovery side, Google improved Remote Lock, a tool that allows you to lock a lost or stolen device from a web browser by entering a verified phone number. The company added an optional security challenge to ensure only the legitimate owner can initiate a remote lock, an important safeguard against misuse.

And finally, in a notable regional rollout, Google said it is now enabling both Theft Detection Lock and Remote Lock by default on new Android device activations in Brazil, a market where phone theft rates are comparatively high. Theft Detection Lock uses on-device AI to detect sudden movements consistent with a snatch-and-run theft, automatically locking the screen to block immediate access to data.

With stolen phones often used to access bank accounts and personal data, Google says these updates are meant to keep a single theft from turning into a much bigger problem.