Slashdot Mirror
Three-Year Deal Nets Hulu Exclusive Rights To South Park
First time accepted submitter gunner_von_diamond writes with news about a deal between the creators of South Park and Hulu. If you're a fan of South Park, you better be a fan of Hulu as well. Specifically, Hulu Plus. The creators of the funny, foul-mouthed animated TV show have signed a deal with the online streaming service. Valued at more than $80 million, the three-year deal grants Hulu exclusive rights to stream the 240+ episode back catalog of South Park in addition to all new episodes (as soon as they've aired on Comedy Central). "This is a natural partnership for us. We are excited that the entire library will be available on Hulu and that the best technology around will power South Park Digital Studios," said creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, in a statement.
What about Canada, you uncle fuckers?
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
Mr. Garrison: What do you think, Mr. Marsh? You ready to put a down payment on that baby? ... Well, I guess you could.
Randy Marsh: Well yeah, but I just had one question about how it works. Well, it seems all the buttons on these front and rear flexi-grips are also found on the side of the vehicle.
Mr. Garrison: Yep.
Randy Marsh: So, they don't really do anything.
Mr. Garrison: Right.
Randy Marsh: So then, couldn't I just order one that works without going in and out of my ass and mouth?
Mr. Garrison: [pause]
Customers: Huh? What's that? What'd he say?
So... they give us Hulu...
Thirty four characters live here.
Bittorrent. And PopcornTime. And every other filesharing network and file host on the entire planet.
Keep walling those gardens. It's all wasted effort. The walls are transparent when the garden is digital.
Screw you guys. I'm going home!
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
define sold out, they're fairly wealthy, adding another distribution channel isn't really selling out, its reaching a wider audience, they sell out when they start censoring themselves.
I tried Hulu Plus for a couple months, but it's just ridiculous. We were forced to watch the same unskippable commercials as we'd seen in the free version, and every week I subscribed it seemed like either the individual commercial breaks got longer or the number of breaks increased (and perhaps both). If I wanted to scroll back to re-view some critical part of the show, and that part happened just before a commercial - I get to watch the commercials AGAIN. And there wasn't anything I wanted to watch that was on Hulu Plus but not on regular Hulu! So basically they wanted me to pay their subscription fee just to remove the artificial restriction that prevents non-Plus subscribers from watching Hulu on devices other than their computer.
So if you haven't experienced it, here's the executive summary: The Hulu Plus experience is pretty much exactly what you'd expect, given the company was the brainchild of a couple broadcast networks.
I don't care what exclusives they get - I will never subscribe to Hulu Plus again.
#DeleteChrome
People still watch South Park.....
As a long time SP fan, anything that keeps it going is fine with me.
Good news for Trey and Matt, the show is on multiple times per day here and I don't know how I can do much more watching. Comedy Central technology works OK for me.$80 mil? Really?
define sold out, they're fairly wealthy, adding another distribution channel isn't really selling out...
No, but taking away distribution channels for money is. You could, as of last check, watch all the episodes online on southparkstudios.com. Now you will only have select episodes and new episodes. That sounds like selling out to me.
"Don't meddle in the affairs of a patent dragon, for thou art tasty and good with ketchup." ~ohcrapitssteve
I watched an episode of it on Hulu the other night. It wasn't an all out terrible experience. While Hulu is far more agressive with their anti-adblocking, they have far fewer ads than South Park Studios did. (South Park Studios often had more ads than watching on Comedy Central.)
That said, since it's going behind the paywall and I don't watch anything else behind Hulu's paywall, I guess I'll just find some other show that makes decent background noise. (Or just pirate it, but I suspect I'm too lazy to do that.)
Hulu Plus became a non-option for me when they decided to show unskippable commercials in their content. I'm amazed that they had 80 dollars to spend on new content, much less 80 million.
Super Best Friends?
Comedy Central censored out Evangaline (female Butters) talking about getting her snootch pounded on friday nights.
I'm guessing, no. Gutless Hulu.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Which is why Hulu paid a premium for the exclusive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
The best thing about UDP jokes is I don't care if you get them or not
They're not. They're removing. You used to be able to watch the back catalog on SPS whenever you wanted. Now you just get a limited rotating selection.
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
Sorry. This is the one you want: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
The best thing about UDP jokes is I don't care if you get them or not
Yeah, but Amazon and Netflix don't give you the privilege of watching several minutes of unskippable commercials for your $8/month. It's a bonus you only get with Hulu!
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
Is this possibly why the 'south park channel' on Plex suddenly stopped working? :(
You mean, in the pilot?
God started it, when he made Miley Cyrus rich and famous.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
To me, it's as if they WANT to drive everyone to don an eye-patch.
I agree the commercials suck. Also, having to watch the same commercials over and over again make me want to NOT buy that product because of the extreme annoyance that is now associated with the product. HOWEVER, between Hulu Plus, Netflix, and an OTA antenna I can satisfy all my TV needs without paying for the greater evil, Comcast or DirecTV. So whereas I hate the commercial breaks (and fortunately, some shows have none) I like the small step in cord-cutting that Hulu Plus provides me. Also, even though there are a lot of commercials, there are still fewer commercials while watching Hulu Plus than there are watching it on cable.
So they were funny up until the pilot?
Granting the was only Jesus vs. Santa wrasling.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
All you can really do is boycott Hulu in protest.
I'm not sure why they had your money at all. IT was free at southparkstudios.com .
It's like saying, don't bother with the free content, I want to pay for everything so go ahead and start charging.
I guess I will have to start watching from torrents again
They must be trying to attract a male audience. I took a look at Hulu. All I saw was the crappy, prime time network crap that has been engineered for middle aged women of below average IQ. Revenge, Hell's Kitchen, The Kardashians, etc. The shows that might be interesting (Doctor Who and a few others) aren't exclusive and can be seen sans annoying commercials on Amazon and/or Netflix.
When I think of the South Park audience I don't think Hulu. That's probably what Hulu was thinking - what a way to attract new subscribers! Here's the thing. People who want to watch South Park still aren't going to Hulu. They'll just torrent the episodes (sans commercials) for free. I can't imagine that 80 million is going to net much for Hulu, but good for Parker and Stone.
...or we can all get in a pile and have gay sex.
i noticed this earlier. i sent them an email. as an expat i always watched new episodes on their website. now with hulu region-ing everything that option is gone.
Hulu doesn't cost money other than watching the ads which were on southparkstudios.com as well. All the episodes right now are on regular Hulu. You don't need Hulu Plus.
They don't give a shit anymore.
I guess I will have to start watching from torrents again
Is it even worth bothering at this point? I can't think of the last time South Park was really clever.
There's better stuff to watch on Netflix.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
...too late. I already avoid Hulu because commercials are something that belong back in the 50s with embedded sponsor testimonials.
Tivo liberated me from commercials in the 90s.
Not going back.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Imagination Land and the recent Black Friday trilogy were good.
But Key and Peele are where it is at with regards to Comedy Central lately.
BlameBillCosby.com
Honestly, I don't use Hulu either. And I just have to hope this results in a net loss for South Park, so others don't follow suit.
South Park is long past the glory days when it was the saving grace of Comedy Central. Here's a perfect way to bring further revenue in for new episodes and paywall content from better seasons past.
The creators of South Park are very clever, and they see the writing on the wall - South Park isn't going to last forever.
From http://variety.com/2014/digita...:
Starting Saturday, July 12, the entire “South Park” library — 244 episodes in all — will be available for free on Hulu, and will continue to be free on SouthPark.cc.com (the address that is replacing SouthParkStudios.com) until Sept. 24. At that point, both Hulu and SouthPark.cc.com will have day-after-air access to new episodes from season 18. In addition, each of the sites will offer a revolving selection of 30 free episodes at any given time.
It sounds like they will not require Hulu plus until Sept 24, after that you will only get a "revolving selection of 30 free episodes" if you are not a member of Hulu Plus.
----
It's a shame really. I refuse to pay for Hulu Plus because of the obnoxious ads. I don't have cable for a reason, and that reason is I have a problem paying monthly for something and still being bombarded by advertisements.
For me I'll probably just stop watching South Park. Not that I would really watch it with any regularity, but it was nice to every once and a while pop over to their site and watch it free (but ad supported).
Hulu is a joke, Hulu Plus is an insult. The broadcast industry in general is an insult. Protected Entitled Industry is Entitled ... well, Entitled to NOTHING.
My Son, who is 20, simply hasn't watched "Commercial Infested" Entertainment for 4+ years? Most of his friends are the same way. The "commercial" model is not sustainable for much longer, then it will be dead ... good bye and good riddance. Hulu Plus? Utter Joke and isn't competition for NetFlix in the least. Hulu is the titanic of the Broadcast industry ... it's going to go under and take a lot of entities with it.
So tired of the "Entertainment Industry" wagging the dog so-to-speak. Once Ala-Carte pricing hits, and it will hit sooner or later, the "whoosh" of money leaving the entire industry will be deafening and long over due.
The Pirate Bay will be devastated.
they finally sold out.
You seem to be thinking that Trey Parker and Matt Stone had a cause. Or maybe that selling SP to HULU just to piss you off is somehow out of character for them. Haha. If a hooker offered them blowjobs for the rights to SP I wouldn't be surprised if they took the deal laughing.
Cartman riding Cthulu was clever.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
It's an exclusive deal that kicks in this Fall.
At the moment, downloaded "purchases" from the iTunes Store, Netflix, and Amazon don't have ads. Replayable, scrubbable, etc.
With this deal, viewers pay three times to watch. Once for cable/internet service, second by watching on Comedy Central, and then third via Hulu plus un-skippable ads, if you like an occasional re-run. Yeech!
Net loss for South Park? They already got their $80 million and that was all pure profit as they were already well in the black just from airing on Comedy Central. But I don't really expect even a D grde level of economics from most /. posters.
I like a different definition of "selling out" that I came across recently. Selling out is when an artist decides to make money instead of starving. By that definition, they sold out pretty much from day one.
It is not about opportunity costs, it is about economic surplus.
Consumer surplus is trimmed because consumers now have to pay more - either directly or indirectly.
Supplier surplus is increased as they shift their profits up.
In theory this could might increase total surplus or even total consumer surplus. With increased profits suppliers would supply more shows. Look at the shows that Netflix and Amazon are putting out. Would these shows have been made with these exclusive deals?
I'm Netflix...
All this will increase is torrent traffic.
I can't stand the 'exclusive' bullshit that networks and providers are playing lately. You try to edge out other providers so people 'have' to use your service? Nahhhhhh....
It's kind of funny that Netflix/hulu/etc. won't compete on service or ease of use or price or etc. but instead play exclusivity games. If you want XYZ you HAVE to use us. (ok, they phrase it differently)
Screw you guys, I'm goin home.
You can get rich if you own a politician, but you have to be rich to buy one in the first place.
Others have already said this but I am weighing in here so if Hulu is reading this they get why I am no longer a customer and won't be coming back until they change. I am not paying for a service that has advertisements, period. I don't care if you add South Park or not. I would rather buy a box set of DVDs than pay for commercials on a streaming service. Besides, isn't asking me to pay and then watch commercials double dipping? They said, when I left, that the commercials allowed them to offer better content. How about charging me another buck or two for a commercial free service? End rant.
I'm disappointed with this direction all the Streaming Services seem to be taking...
Instead of excelling by providing a stellar service, they're locking their users in by obtaining "exclusive rights" to content.
Hulu is the worst of the bunch, their Plus service is a joke - the sole benefits of which are:
1. You can watch episodes of the most popular running shows the day after airing. (even though you used to be able to do this without Plus and can still watch without plus, a week or so later.)
2. You can use Hulu on other Devices.
You still get Ads (which are increasing in both number and frequency - yes, I noticed Hulu!)
And you still don't get a lot of prime content, like most CBS shows.
I have a Plus subscription, pretty much for the convenience factor of running Hulu on my XBOX which is my media hub. But I'm really starting to question it's value now that they're yet again increasing Ad load. I didn't drop Cable because Hulu lets me watch shows when I want (that's a nice extra), I dropped cable because there were too many Ads and Hulu had less (way less at the time.) Now Hulu is pretty much Cable-on-demand, so perhaps it's time to drop it too - I'll save the $8 /mo and buy the season on VOD/DVD or BluRay instead.
Does this mean we'll finally get to see episode 201 again? Seeing as how it's not allowed to show on southparkstudios.net
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2...
It is actions like this that cause an increase in piracy of content. Taking what used to be free to watch and now charging for it. The content providers are thus promoting the piracy of their own products.
Hulu doesn't cost money other than watching the ads which were on southparkstudios.com as well. All the episodes right now are on regular Hulu. You don't need Hulu Plus.
Not yet you don't. Come September 24th you will. Hulu Plus does cost money. Watching most South Park episodes will cost money *in addition* to commercials. That's a net loss for the viewer.