The New York Times is reporting that Matt Stone and Trey Parker will be streaming the first nine seasons of South Park on Netflix. However, the factoid I found the most interesting was that they "retained non-television rights to the show as part of their original deal with the cable channel".I often praise Matt and Trey and believe that under their guidance they produce one of the most witty, insightful and subversive shows on television. The fact that they had the foresight to retain non-television rights to their show in an era when television is becoming less important as a medium in our daily lives is outright brilliant.
I'm reminded of Microsoft's original deal with IBM where they retained the rights to the code and IBM would only "lease" it. The Internet became a phenomenon around 1995. South Park started in 1997. Obviously, the creators saw where things were heading, planned accordingly and are now reaping the rewards.
[via TV Week]















Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-02-2009 @ 2:11PM
Randy said...
Full-length episodes for all 12 seasons are available here:
http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/
Reply
3-02-2009 @ 4:05PM
Robert said...
And legal!
3-02-2009 @ 10:33PM
Technomania said...
But Randy those are ad-based episodes.
South Park on Netflix Instant movies will be ad-free and in HQ
3-02-2009 @ 5:01PM
nancyofthepants said...
when the new (and current) southparkstudios.com site launched, the episodes used to be available the day after the original airdate. starting this past season we have to wait about 3-4 weeks, which is a total bummer. but what makes it forgivable is on the site they specifically say something like 'our lawyers make us wait 3-4 weeks, too bad!'
Reply
3-02-2009 @ 8:04PM
Vito said...
I guess they want some of that internet moneh.
Reply
3-03-2009 @ 2:59AM
ManekiNeko said...
Wow, shrewd. Bet Sumner Redstone didn't realize how badly he would get screwed in THAT deal!
Reply
3-03-2009 @ 9:43AM
Philip said...
Nothing like having good lawyers!
Reply