South Park: online, free and legal

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 27 March 2008 01:58

Your IT - Home IT

Full-length episodes of the popular - if sometimes controversial - South Park animated series are now available on the web with the backing of the copyright holders.

In a welcome move, the content is being made available almost globally. The UK, Australia and a few other territories are currently barred from viewing complete episodes (presumably due to existing distribution agreements), although individual clips can be watched in those countries.

"One goal in moving forward is to make every episode of South Park available world-wide," said Anne Garefino, general manager of South Park Digital Studios.

SouthParkStudios.com will initially offer each new episode for just one week after it first screens on Comedy Channel. It will be added permanently to the library after a 30-day hiatus. THe revamped site was launched with 168 of the 169 episodes ready for viewing.

The service is supported by advertising.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the show's creators, quipped "We got really sick of having to download our own show illegally all the time so we gave ourselves a legal alternative."

Other features of the site include an episode guide, downloadable images, games, ringtones, and a store offering T shirts and other South Park merchandise.