Honestly they did this to themselves because they got greedy. Made a bunch of deals back in 2018-2019 that led to today's shitshow. Sorry guys, you lived long enough to become the villain instead of dying the hero.

[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 25 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

They're "villains" because they wanted just half of the revenue from the show they created?

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 20 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

They went out of their way in the late 2000's to put the entire catalog on their own website so anyone on any device could watch any episode they wanted any time.

They're villains because they chose to make deals and provide an inferior experience to their fans by removing the ability to watch them all on southpark.com and instead force them behind paywalled systems like Hulu, HBO Max, and Paramount+. They had a good thing, and they threw it in the trash for a deal that now means hardly anyone who is paying money can actually watch them.

I even remember their reasoning back then was because they were tired of pirating their own show to see copies of it digitally. They also saw it as a way to fight piracy by giving an easy, legal pathway to watching. They stopped giving a damn about all that.

Seems like a lot of interviews during this period are lost or memory-holed. This is the closest I can find to what I am talking about:

https://web.archive.org/web/20080610182055/http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=11226

[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Who said that was their choice?

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Other than the Daily Show they're the only reason that Comedy Central is even still a TV network. They seriously don't have any pull in these deals? I call bullshit especially since Matt Stone hardly contributes to writing and mostly is the business-side guy.

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.

In 2008 they were able to leverage their deal with Comedy Central to get CC to fund southparkstudios.com to allow them to post them all online. You think they somehow lost that leverage? They still signed their names to these deals and you're saying they had no choice?

[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 3 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

In other words, you're just guessing?

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

This is beginning to read like the bodybuilder forum where muscle-heads argued over the number of days in a week.

[–] OozingPositron@feddit.cl 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Does this link work for you?

https://www.southpark.lat/seasons/south-park

[–] pupbiru@aussie.zone 5 points 3 weeks ago

“Sorry, this video is not available from your location”

… which is a near universal rule when it comes to Australia :p

[–] vane@lemmy.world 32 points 3 weeks ago

Maybe they erased their episodes but I still have my episodes untouched by censor junkies.

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago

Shouldn't comment as this doesn't effect me, but why is 90% of the population not just stealing this shit?! If I want to watch a thing, and might want to again, I download it.

This shit is not hard. My first wife was laughing with another lady in the Walmart line about downloading from aXXo. "He's the best!" Y'all, this was almost 20-years ago!