Gizmodo
Earlier this year, Viacom put every Daily Show episode online for free, and it was awesome. Now, they're following suit with South Park, with plans to put every episode of the animated series online for free next year.
It's a ballsier move than putting The Daily Show online, as South Park sells lots of DVDs, and these episodes will directly compete with episodes available for sale in stores. The Daily Show is less valuable as it gets older, as it's news-based, so putting episodes that poke fun of Ralph Nader online wasn't as much of a risk. If successful, look for more MTV and Comedy Central shows to get this treatment (The State! Please!). The more free TV shows online the better, as far as we're concerned. We'd like it if they spread the love and made all these episodes available to other players such as Joost, but I guess we should be happy with what we get. [Reuters]
Comments
I concur, make The State available for my consumption.
With commercials? If yes, then I don't see a loss of revenue. If no, then it really does cannibalize the DVDs.
So they have no plans to sell "South Park" DVDs then.
On the upside, I suppose that they'll save on bandwidth as the episodes will get hacked and passed around Bittorrent like so many skunky joints.
If it runs like TV, then I have no issues. I just refuse to let ads consume significant space on my computer.
How does this play into the writers strike and the supposed value of this content online? If they give it away for free, that is a big statement.
ever seen this site?
[www.southparkzone.com]
its not the best quality.. but its free =)
@drum: A great site for the episodes that you might miss the night before or what not.
Well, with DVDs you have to pay writers, actors, and directors a couple cents when you sell one not to mention the few cents it costs to manufacture the DVD. When you post it online, though, nothing. So any revenue goes right into the studio's pockets with little overhead and no pesky residuals to the people who made it.
What was that strike about again?
Wow, what's the iTunes angle on this?
I bought a season of South Park on a whim a while back because somebody set me up with an iTunes gift card. All of the idiots out there like me who paid for this content could get it for free now! I think this is a major defection from iTunes every bit as much as it's a huge victory for both the IP owners and network.
Distribution platforms are so freaking important
Sweeeet.
In case anyone didn't know, the State is available on iTunes.
this is fucking badass.
Geeze... i'd be happy with The State on DVD. According to a November 1st post on www.the-state.com (their official site) its NOT being released "this fall." The DVDs are DONE, but they aren't ready to release it. And they don't know why.
I don't use iTunes... but i might, just for the first season.
are these just for viewing or able to download?
Who needs that, when you have this?
AllSP.com
@lafond66: Awesome!! (bookmarked)
but... they're all already online?
I'm just happy I'm not the only person privy to the excellence that was "The State."
www.allsp.com has all of the southparks already on there, all commercial free
been there for a very long time
Honestly, put your episodes of anything up online in good quality and I will watch them with commercials if that means I get to watch them at my own time.
I agree that the State was good, but it's no Mr. Show!
Yeah, agreed...who cares when we've had allsp.com for a while now. Not the best quality, and the popups are a bit of a pain unless youre running on firefox with adblocker....mmmmmkay
Who really cares about high quality with a show like southpark? Even when I blow up ultra poor quality on my big screen, the south park still looks just fine.
There's not much detail in their animation, after all.
will that be US-only? because TDS isn't, but most shows from network websites are.
Even the great episode that Tom Cruise/Scientologists made Comedy Central stop playing???
@xxenclavexx: Someone should mention that to Tivo. Now that they're selling ads, I don't really see why anyone would pay for Tivo if ad-driven free online content becomes prevalent.
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Notice to other networks: Screw you guys...I'm going home.
@BStu: South park don't use union writers, so they are not part of the strike. And seems like they really don't care that much about making money; they are sorta the Radiohead of tv show industry, all about their ideas less about money. The show's brilliant!
Seriously, if south park goes on strike, something in the world is really f*cked up...more than ever!
I would prefer Robot Chicken to SouthPark, thank you very much.
Thats good news.. i just hope they actually encode the videos in good quality.. : )
@Marco: whatever, dude. that's like saying you prefer Jim Carrey to Dennis Miller. Geebus flibbing Xmas mate, you may need a brain enema (jk, ffs, jk!!)
Um, you guys know that the first season of the State IS already available for free online, right?
[www.ifilm.com]
The State...whoa, wasn't that on like aeons ago? With Michael Ian Black, and that dude from Reno 9-11, right? Yeah, that was hilarious! Oh, and the girl from Reno was on there too, if I recall?
Glad to see there's still a contingency for the resurrection of The State.
@diehippiedie: I know South Park's writers aren't on strike, but its the business dynamic this demonstrates that shows us why writers on strike. The Daily Show's writers ARE union, and there stuff is online for free already. The studios wouldn't do something like this if there wasn't money to be made, but they turn around and insist that there is no money to be made.
They're already online for free. I mean real free. I guess Viacom doesn't know about them. And I don't mean Torrents and P2P. I'm talking about dedicated flash video based sites with whole episodes and commentaries.
You know Viacom's will be full of advertisements. I'll take the alternative for now.
I'm not so sure this will compete that much with DVD sales/rentals.
Either one thing is likely to be true 1) there will be Windows-only DRM on the files or 2) it'll be low-resolution Flash that won't scale well on a 40"+ HD television.
I would love to download my TV shows, with commercials, rather than pay for crummy cable TV.
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