Ah, I remember the good old days — whenever a new South Park episode aired, we used to walk uphill in the snow, barefoot, to download it off BitTorrent networks or websites like AllSP. And we were grateful!
But no more. South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker have just debuted a new version of the South Park Studios website with Comedy Central, where – with Darth Viacom's blessing – you can now stream any episode from any of the show's 12 seasons.
Reached by email this afternoon, Matt Stone tells Boing Boing,
Every South Park episode and billions of clips have been online for years on YouTube or BitTorrent (…) we've always loved the fact that more people in more places could see our little show. The new website just makes it easier for people to see and share South Park.
Eventually every episode and clip will be available everywhere in the world. There is a tangle of contracts that Comedy Central has with different cable companies and territories that are preventing us from that right now. But hopefully it won't be long.
Basically, we just got really sick of having to download our own show illegally all the time. So we gave ourselves a legal alternative.
Other features on the new site include embeddable clips, a new avatar builder, and same-day simulcasting of new episodes.
News of these plans broke late last year, but entire episode viewing launched just today. The site's new look was developed by a team at Schematic.
(Thanks, Jason McHugh, Miles, and Jolon Bankey!)