South Park moves behind Hulu paywall starting Sept 24, 2014

[40hz]

It was bound to happen sooner or later...



From Ars Technica (full article here)

Since 2008, fans of the Comedy Central cartoon South Park have been able to stream the show’s entire library (minus a few permanently redacted episodes) from the South Park Studios site. But according to a new post on the show's official blog, this fan-friendly unlimited streaming arrangement will soon be ending: South Park is moving to Hulu. Folks who want to watch more than a limited selection of old South Park episodes will either have to resort to physical media or begin paying $7.99 per month to subscribe to Hulu Plus.

Under what the blog post describes as an "exclusive, multi-year" agreement, the current offering of streamable South Park episodes will remain available until September 24 at both the show’s official site and also on Hulu. After September 24—the start of the show’s 18th season—new episodes will be available to both standard Hulu and Hulu Plus customers the day after they air (Variety’s writeup says that the official South Park Studios site will also have next-day streaming, but that isn’t mentioned in the blog post).

The big change is the paywalling of past episodes. After September 24, free Hulu users and visitors to the show’s official site will only be able to watch "a revolving selection of free episodes." Unlimited access—which today is free—will only be available for Hulu Plus users....

 

[MilesAhead]

Heh.  The Southpark crew should do a show where Cartman bitches about it.  I'd love to see them skewer themselves(providing I don't have to pay to see it.) 

[Renegade]

Then again, there's always the EZTV proxy...

[TaoPhoenix]

Oh my god! They killed South Park Fan respect!

[40hz]

“This is a natural partnership for us,” said Matt Parker and Trey Stone, creators of South Park. “We are excited that the entire library will be available on Hulu and that the best technology around will power South Park Digital Studios.”

-------------------------------------------------

It is a little weird to see Matt Parker and Trey Stone happily chatting around the change as if nothing happened and it's all a big win for their fans. Especially after their original discussion about why it was so important for them to be able to make the entire archive of past episodes freely available when they first started doing it.

The real problem with a Hulu Pro subscription isn't the cost (about $8 USD/mo. last I checked) but the fact that what's included in their subscription isn't the same the whole world over. Hulu bows to local government censorship conventions regarding propriety. So there's every good likelihood SP will have certain episodes "redacted" (or the entire show embargoed) depending on which country the subscriber resides in.

Then there's all the commercials and region lockout you get with Hulu. That's something nobody in SP or Hulu will even acknowledge, let alone talk about.

Sad.

Commenter seaborgium over at Ars Technica said it best: Locking your show behind only one method of streaming is a big reason why people torrent.

[Renegade]

Just me blathering...

It is a little weird to see Matt Parker and Trey Stone happily chatting around the change as if nothing happened and it's all a big win for their fans. Especially after their original discussion about why it was so important for them to be able to make the entire archive of past episodes freely available when they first started doing it.

-40hz (July 13, 2014, 08:22 PM)

It is odd. Especially as the episodes aren't available. (See below.)

Then there's all the commercials and region lockout you get with Hulu. That's something nobody in SP or Hulu will even acknowledge, let alone talk about.

Sad.

Commenter seaborgium over at Ars Technica said it best: Locking your show behind only one method of streaming is a big reason why people torrent.

-40hz (July 13, 2014, 08:22 PM)

The best online TV service is EZTV. They have an excellent selection with a huge catalog of older shows. Their interface is easy to use and fairly reliable, though they do tend to have downtime every now and then.

But EZTV isn't monopolistic. You can access their services through The Pirate Bay as well.

Their broad distribution, regional agnosticism, and fair treatment of all people visiting them has earned them a good reputation.

<snicker />

The hoops & hurdles required by services like Hulu have driven traffic to other providers, like EZTV.

Now, on the dollar side of things...

If you're accessing Hulu for $8, that's about as much as you'd spend for a VPN. So there's really very little difference, if any. But with a VPN and torrents, you're unencumbered by logging in, managing accounts, and getting locked out of something because of where you live.



Throw into the mix that streaming is just crappy, compared to downloading, and what do you have?

What's the upside argument for Hulu? Not much.

And one final jab at Hulu...

In their "MADE IN CANADA" section, they don't have Trailer Park Boys. Pfft.

https://www.swearnet.com/ (NFSW - but the domain should already be enough to know that)

I gladly shelled out to Swearnet for a subscription. In Bitcoin.

[superboyac]

Wow, very interesting.  I should be following these kinds of current events since I'm interested in learning this business.

I always thought it was amazing that SP offered their library for free on their website.  other shows, like late night, do it as well, but not the entire library like SP did.  I wonder what all this sort of thing is really leading up to, and I hope it's not as bad as it seems.