Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Viacom Puts the Daily Show Archive Online

Posted by Zonk on from the lewis-black-catches-it-for-a-segment-we-call-back-in-black dept.

tburton writes "Viacom has put the entire eight year run of the Daily Show with John Stewart online. The content is available from the official Daily Show site, and features clip rating, tags, and numerous community features. The whole thing is supported by relatively unobtrusive contextual ads. 'Viacom's decision to post its entire archive--while fighting YouTube in the courts--sets the scene for a battle between the established media players and their high profile entertainment brands against the user generated content sites, most notable YouTube. Also watching closely the Viacom experiment will be the telco IPTV industry which has seen the market place change rapidly as the quality of online video continues to improve, with at least one platform/site, Vimeo, already offering 1280X720 HD quality direct from the browser.'"

10 of 153 comments (clear)

  1. Should have guessed by cucumberjones · · Score: 2, Informative

    It got Slashdotted.

    1. Re:Should have guessed by shinmai · · Score: 4, Informative

      And this is what people kept telling viacom, when they decided to sue youtube, to get more people to use their own video service.

      Many of the companies that threatened to, or did sue youtube, seemed to do so to get more users on their own video-sites. Funny thing is (albeit I might not be what one would describe as an average user) I for one haven't. I like YouTube because it knows what it wants to do, and does it well. It wants to host videos, and it's doing a good job at that. Instead of suing, these companies should've (IMHO, of course) have partnered up with Google & Co. and use the existing fanbase their content had on Youtube, instead of removing the material and hoping people would like to, instead of watching cool videos from one site, wade through half a dozen different sites to do the same..
      I'm not too hot on Comedy Centrals own video player, for instance, and as such, have stopped watching clips of Daily Show and the Report, and instead reverted back to my old habit of downloading the whole episodes from tvrss (Only one channel shows either of the two here in Finland: CNBC shows Daily Show Global Edition, which is a shortened version of the original, with a different moment of zen). Was going to post AC, but what the hell..

  2. ABC by Huitzlopochtli · · Score: 2, Informative

    ABC.com also offers streaming, 1280X1024 HD full episodes on their website. It's still in beta, but works fine.

  3. Not the entire run by skintigh2 · · Score: 3, Informative

    The Daily Show has been around since 1996, but 8 years does cover all the Jon Stewart years.

    Also, full shows are not available, just clips, though supposedly you can piece together most episodes.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071018/wr_nm/dailyshow_dc_2

    1. Re:Not the entire run by Hatta · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yeah it's a pretty weak gesture. I've got an RSS feed dumping torrents in a watch directory shared on my lan. All I have to do is turn on my xbox and watch. If I have to sit in my computer chair and click a bunch of shit I'm not even going to bother.

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
  4. Not the "Entire" Daily Show archive... by Tetsujin · · Score: 3, Informative

    Where are the Craig Kilborn eps?

    --
    Bow-ties are cool.
  5. Re:Nitpick by The+Cheez-Czar · · Score: 5, Informative

    Both this article and the original LA Times says its an archive of "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart", Which started in 1999.
    So I guess they do considerer "The Daily Show With Craig Kilborn" to be a different show.

    --
    This Signature does Not Exist !! FNORD
  6. Re:They will never learn! by Shakrai · · Score: 2, Informative

    when their server becomes a pile of molten slag?

    One would assume that they are using some sort of distributed solution, like Akamai. One would also assume that Viacom has enough resources to pull this off if they decide to do so. I'm not having any problems watching (well, downloading, cuz I'm reading /.) videos on that site. Maxed out my 10.0mbit connection as a matter of fact. And that's AFTER a /. article about it....

    --
    I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
    We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
  7. Re:They will never learn! by Sonivius · · Score: 3, Informative

    I bought a collection of shrinkwrapped 'Daily Show' DVDs at Best Buy.

  8. Re:They will never learn! by Jthon · · Score: 2, Informative

    I would love to see an online archive of Babylon 5, Star Trek:TNG, Law & Order, 24, or any of the other TV shows that I watch. If I could go back and watch my favorite episode at the click of a button and the only downside was a few ads (that I'd see on TV anyway) how am I losing?

    I see you haven't heard of AOL's In2TV which just happens to let you watch and stream every episode of Babylon 5, along with some other classic shows (you can even download high quality episodes of some shows). Check it out at http://television.aol.com/in2tv. (This is probably the only good thing I've ever seen come out of AOL.)