First Radiohead, then Trent Reznor, now the boys of South Park
are throwing their creations up on the web, free of charge. Fans of the foul-mouthed children can
now catch every full episode online, brought to you by Matt Stone and Trey
Parker’s new digital studio.
South Park Digital Studios will be the new home for all
South Park related material, including a listing of every episode, 3,000 video
clips and avatar creator. The site also
has a slew of other interactive features such as twelve Flash, Shockwave and
Java powered mini games, along with the usual downloads section and online
retail.
South Park creators, Parker and Stone, extended their contract
with Comedy Central to allow for three more seasons, with episodes through
2011. Part of the agreement states that
Comedy Central will financially back the official South Park site,
SouthParkStudios.com. Along with the
agreement, Parker and Stone joined an agreement that gives them equal
partnership in their new digital venture.
“Three more years of South Park will give us the
opportunity to offend that many more people,” Stone said in a prepared
statement. “And since Trey and I are in charge of the digital side of South
Park, we can offend people on their cellphones, game consoles, and
computers too. It's all very exciting for us.”
For those of you who like it crude, new episodes will be streaming uncensored. That’s right, now you get to hear what Cartman
is actually screaming about without the obnoxious bleeps.
Just like with television, viewers will still have to put up
with advertisements during episodes. It’s
not all bad though; the ads are fairly short, but there are about three per
episode. But still seems like a price
fans who can't afford the DVDs would be willing to pay.
Recently, Radiohead and Trent Reznor took the initiative of offering their work online, free of charge. With the amount of publicity both the political alt-rockers and Nine Inch Nails frontman received, and financial revenues, its no surprise other artists are finally jumping on the internet bandwagon.
The South Park fansite is currently in its beta stage and it only available
within the United States.