Friday, March 28, 2008

South Park Episodes - Legally Free Online!

You can watch South Park for free now! Of course, it would be the latest episode. The latest episode will first air on TV, then they will it online for a week, take it down, and put it back up on the site permanently.

Heh, the website is http://www.southparkstudios.com/

Apparently the creators struck a deal with Viacom cos' the creators themselves are 'really sick of having to download our own show illegally all the time', and so the site is created.

This is a good business model that will work better than forbidding anyone from downloading any copies of such creative works. The reasons are simple, merchandise and viral marketing!

There is more money to be made in merchandise, so offering the episodes for free is a simple and good way to popularise the associated brand. In this case I'm sure South Park is already very popular and doesn't need any more publicity, but heh they could definitely earn from these merchandise.

Offering free downloads online aids viral marketing. Telling your friends that a particular show is good without showing the friends the product is less effective. The friends still need to find legal copies of the show, or borrow yours for a good preview. Offering free views online simply means you can point them to the site, and almost immediately get a good preview!

Hmm wonder if others, e.g. Jap animes... etc would follow South Park? Heh.

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