During a dream tour of South Park Studios—25,000-square-foot operation—the NYT’s David Carr picked up the news that the first nine seasons of the series will soon be available on Netflix’s streaming service.
Their warehouse really is like a centralized Imperial headquarters that controls all things South Park. Says Matt Stone: “The way we are set up now, when, say, Netflix wants season five, we can just push a button and make it happen.”
Interestingly, they also met with Hulu and Joost, but only Netflix was willing to pay, so Netflix is the only streaming service with rights to it. Which makes sense, since Matt and Trey personally get half of all the online revenue—a prescient move that’s been in their contract since 1997.
They definitely get it in ways most corporate suits don’t: “People just have to sit through a short commercial and then we give them every episode in very high quality that makes stealing it seem dumb… Anywhere there is an iPhone, an Xbox, or a computer, people can watch the show now, which is good for us and for Comedy Central.” Except on the iPhone, thanks to Apple.
https://gizmodo.com/south-park-iphone-app-looks-awesome-almost-perfect-5060774
Of course, it doesn’t hurt that South Park has the perfect audience for them to explore outside the 4:3 box in living rooms more than just about anybody else. [NYT – Thanks Tim!]
