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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.'"

13 of 153 comments (clear)

  1. They will never learn! by garcia · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is for one reason and one reason only, because GooTube exists. If there was no such thing available to so many people, the media companies wouldn't give a flying rats ass.

    But because people are obviously interested in this medium and they are pissed that Viacom is being a bunch of fucking litigious bastards, they had to do something... We'll see just how it stacks up but based on the other networks' actions, I doubt it will be nearly as popular as the content available in one place - YouTube.

    I realize they want to control the content they own and all, but seriously, isn't it just easier to have someone else foot the bandwidth bills and to have your viewership get it the way they want? They will never learn :(

    1. Re:They will never learn! by Shakrai · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They will never learn :(

      Uhhh, yeah, I'm all about "sticking it to the man" too and I get rather pissed off when media outfits try to use DRM to lock down content that I've paid for, but what exactly is the problem with this?

      They are putting the entire archive of a fairly popular TV show online, at no expense. Even if you have to watch commercials with it (do you? You did on their old site, but TFA seems to suggest you won't) how can you complain about that?

      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 want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
      We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
    2. Re:They will never learn! by ucblockhead · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Don't get your hopes up. They won't put those shows up. They might put up topical shows like "The Daily Show" because they are essentially worthless a week or so after air. You will never see "The Daily Show" DVDs or year old "The Daily Show" reruns on late night TV because no one would buy/watch. Episodic television, on the other hand, are worth money decades after release.

      --
      The cake is a pie
    3. Re:They will never learn! by Lumpy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      There is a online archive of those. it's called Netflix.

      and I get to watch them in low compression 720X480 resolution instead of 320X240 incredibly high compressed.
      Incredibly high bandwidth, very high latency. and no DRM... well no drm that isn't easily circumvented.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  2. Nitpick by dorsey · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Hasn't the Daily Show been on tv for more than eight years? Or do they just consider the Craig Kilborn years to be a completely different show?

    --
    hinderfreude ('hin-dur-"froi-d&), n. The feeling of joy derived from being in the way.
  3. Re:Should have guessed by wpanderson · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Service unavailable - Fail to connect

    Kinda demonstrates the case for p2p file transfers, huh.

    --
    neuro at well dot com (when I post, it's my opinions, no-one elses)
  4. Why is it cut up into 3 minute clips then? by MikeUW · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Maybe it's just me, but I don't really like watching a show that's been sliced and diced into little pieces...I generally prefer the whole thing. I'm sure that having individual parts reduces overall bandwidth for their servers, but could there at least be an option for the whole show? Otherwise, I don't see how this is any better than if someone were to download it at a higher resolution/bitrate from a torrent site.

  5. Re:Viacom makes me hate the Daily Show by Shakrai · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I don't care how good the actual program is, any more than I care how good an RIAA-backed CD is. It may be ad hominem (ad corporatem?) but if they want to take their ball and go home I'm not going to follow begging.

    Give me a fucking break! They aren't CHARGING YOU FOR THIS. THEY ARE GIVING IT AWAY. There is no way in hell that you can compare them wanting videos removed from Youtube while GIVING AWAY THE CONTENT FOR FREE to the bullshit that RIAA is trying to pull.

    Either I watch on YouTube, or I don't watch at all. I'm not bookmarking 5,000,000 video sites to do casual browsing. That's stupid.

    Again, grow the hell up. It's really that much harder to do a Google search for 'The Daily Show' and following the first link as opposed to doing a search on YouTube for 'The Daily Show'? If you owned the content would you want YouTube raking in the ad dollars for something THAT YOU CREATED?

    --
    I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
    We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
  6. In a word... by thatskinnyguy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yes.

    --
    The game.
  7. Re:Should have guessed by Endymion · · Score: 3, Insightful

    so instead of leaving things be on gootube, and letting google pay for the bandwidth, they decide to setup their own site so they can pay for the bandwidth themselves?

    This "we must have control at all costs" never makes sense to me, especially when there's a financial reason not too...

    --
    Ce n'est pas une signature automatique.
  8. So... by trrwilson · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How long do you think it will be before someone comes up with a way to automatically view, save, and organize/categorize all these clips? Open DShowDL Wait X hours Ding! Everything!

  9. Re:Not the entire run by jZnat · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Computers are supposed to automate things for us, not make us work for the computer. Having to jump through a bunch of hoops just to do something is completely unacceptable when there are far easier and more efficient ways of doing things.

    --
    'Yes, firefox is indeed greater than women. Can women block pops up for you? No. Can Firefox show you naked women? Yes.'
  10. Motherload? by Rhesusmonkey · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You guys are all wrapped up in the legality and whatnot when the greater issue is right in front of you: Motherload, the comedy central content delivery system is abysmal. It forgets what it's doing, fails to load reliably, spams the same video ads over and over while simultaneously showing you photo and text ads for the exact same product (seeing the Starbucks logo in 3 places at once does nothing to affect my buying habits, sorry) It's just a pain in the hinder. I'll go anywhere, youtube, gootube, even myfreepaysite if I can find a user friendly interface that isn't going to abuse me more than the dirty television does.

    --
    You need more psychedelic art in your life. rhesusmonkey.deviantart.com