There’s no doubt that the TV industry has been shaken up by the writers’ strike. And Viacom’s newest move is a mirror image of that effect. Next year, Comedy Central will be making each of the 167 full episodes (from series 1 to series 11) of South Park to be streamed online for free…

For Free!!!

If you know anything about SouthPark creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, you should know that they really don’t care how you watch South Park. They’ve even publicly encouraged viewers to use P2P networks to obtain their content.

Not only would this move to stream full SouthPark episodes for free combat P2P networks by finally offering a legal alternative, but it would generate a ton of ad revenue as well. It worked for The Daily Show back in October, I suppose Comedy Central also thinks it should work for South Park Episodes.

Mika Salmi from MTV Networks publicly stated:

“The Daily Show was the first out of the gate and it’s been a big success and it’s a nice little model for us to follow. There’s no limit to which shows we can use at this stage.”

Could this mean that the TV industry is actually starting to wake up? I wouldn’t go as far as saying that, but at least Viacom is making some bold moves.

[South Park Studios Website]