SOUTH PARK just signed on for another three years. The Hollywood Reporter detailed the particulars: 14 episodes per year, for which Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s production company will get $75 million. You will find it amusing to break that down and see how much they make for an episode that they essentially throw together at the last minute using a couple of Macs and a rudimentary understanding of character design.

Do I have to do all your thinking for you? $1.79 million. I bet the staff is all interns too.

Don’t worry, Comedy Central can afford it because they make much more than that selling commercials on the show. Additionally they make money from everybody who gets Comedy Central because cable companies kick back a few cents of your bill for each channel they carry.And a show like SOUTH PARK is a subscriber magnet. it’s a tipping point between “I don’t need cable” and “I gotta get me some of that.”

However, the juicy detail of this massive exchange of money is the clause that gives Parker and Stone half of the web advertising. It’s not much today. Networks are in the infancy of selling ads for online content. Mostly online content IS the ad, a free sample to entice people to watch on a REAL televsion. So half of almost nothing is nothing, right? I wonder. Someone in the organization (maybe Kyle - he’s the smart one) noticed that Network Televsion ad money is dropping like Mr. Hanky. Instead the advertisers are putting their money into basic cable and internet, where they can be more specific about who sees it.

And that trend is likely to continue.

So the only question is, how smart are Parker and Stone? Depends. For one thing it depends on whether people will accept ads on web video - the signs are good but it’s a little early to tell. Then you have to wonder how many people would rather watch a show on their computers instead of a TV. Of course, it’s becoming increasingly easy to watch desktop content ON your TV.

So finally, the real answer to the question of how smart they are hinges on what they gave up in exchange for the pig in a poke that is web advertising. It’s a handful of magic beans. If they gave up a whole cow, they’re stupid. If they gave up a leather shoe, they’re pretty smart.

And whatever they gave up, if it turns out there is a real beanstalk here, they’re the smartest guys in showbiz.

- daniel k.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 30th, 2007 at 1:58 pm and is filed under General, Television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.