I have been doing a lot of research lately. In my search for knowledge I found out that all of the South Park episodes are online. I couldn’t help but smile because the creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker understand their user base.

TV is great. VCR’s improved watching TV by adding the ability to record. Tivo improved it further by making it easier to record and follow shows. iTunes allows people do download shows on demand. However, digital media is still a step behind being able to get the content when a user would like it, for example past episodes. With blog entries, podcasts, online videos, etc. a simple search will find it in an archive. My favorite TV show, that probably isn’t on iTunes?

I better have Tivo.

In the case of the new South Park deal, the show’s creators and Comedy Central will split ad revenue 50-50 from the digital joint venture, a network official confirmed last week. Stone and Parker also will get an increase in their salaries and guaranteed advances from DVDs, merchandising, international sales and syndication, The New York Times reported last week.

The strategic alliance includes the formation of the new studio, South Park Digital Studios, at South Park headquarters in Los Angeles. It will serve as the new home for all digital extensions of the show’s franchise, as well as an incubator for new animated projects.

South Park will have new episodes on Comedy Central through 2011. They are even considering gaming platforms. Excellent example of diversifying a brand and keeping their users happy.

Although on a much smaller scale, while developing Chawlk the guys and I had to give thought to the content that will be on the site, the best way to present it, and how to properly integrate aggregation into the site. How do readers want to view the content? What content are they interested in? The answers aren’t always readily apparent and I will be honest in stating that the guys had to deal with this hurdle more than I did. The technical and visual end on how the content is distributed isn’t easy to determine and I have much respect for their determination in finding the optimal solutions in achieving our goals. I never take for granted that, what I used to consider a simple request like, “it sure would be nice to have…”, could mean days of programming and research to pull it off. I always have appreciation for their efforts.

/end sappy moment

Obviously Matt and Trey are on the right track because I’ve read nothing but positive reviews for putting all the episodes online. Users are happy. Hopefully this will start a trend for other networks to jump on board along with giving creators more control over the distribution of their content.