‘South Park’ Creators Ink Streaming Deal With Hulu
South Park is getting a new digital home on Hulu. Trey Parker and Matt Stone (co-creators of Comedy Central’s animated staple) have signed a deal with the streaming site, which will now host all 244 episodes of the show’s first 17 seasons; new episodes will be available exclusively on Hulu Plus the day after airing on television. The deal was announced on Sunday at the Television Critics Association summer press tour, The New York Times reports.
The Top 25 Moments From South Park
Fans can watch the entirety of the series’ classic backlog on the free version of Hulu until September, and SouthParkStudios will continue to stream episodes until Season 18 premieres on September 24th. Both sites will then host a rotating selection of episodes, while the subscription-only Hulu Plus will take over the full catalog. A New York Times source says the complicated deal is worth over $80 million.
“Content came out of its hole, saw its shadow and ran back down the hole for protection,” Stone recently told the publication. “What we do is expensive; it takes a lot of people; and it makes sense to put it through windows in a way that produces a lot of value. We do what we do because we act like we own the stuff and try to surf whatever wave is out there.”
Stone says the Hulu partnership will ensure that “the new stuff (is) always available to fans” and also bring in two revenue sources: “advertising and subscriptions.”
Since debuting in 1997, South Park has become one of the most enduring and influential TV comedies of all-time, with Parker and Stone taking a merciless approach to satire. (They’ve also made fun of Kanye West a lot.)