The Daily Show is a brilliant satirical show which everyone
has probably heard of, even if they aren’t particularly fans of the
type of humour.
It’s a great
showcase for the satirical jabs of Jon Stewart and pals, as they round
on any politician or organisation who has recently acted
stupidly.
If you are one of the many fans, you might have been overjoyed
to
hear that Comedy Central (which is part of MTV, which in turn is part
of Viacom) recently launched
a website with 13,000 or so clips from the show, including
some of the most-loved episodes.
Finally, you may have thought to yourself — after
months of fighting with YouTube over clips from the show (which
routinely appear and then are quickly removed), Viacom has decided that
giving viewers what they want over the Internet is the right way to go.
Bravo.
Not If You Are Canadian
The only problem with that rosy little scenario is that
Viacom’s largesse — like every other U.S. TV
network that has decided to stream popular shows from their website
— is completely unavailable to Canadian viewers (and to
viewers in other countries as well).
You can go to the
website and click on a video, but you don’t get
anything. To add insult to injury, the pre-roll advertising spot that
Viacom has sold for the clip plays just fine, but is followed by a
black screen — a screen that might as well say “Hey
non-U.S. viewers — look at all the stuff you can’t
watch.”
Why can’t you watch The Daily Show clips? The same
reason you can’t watch an episode of Heroes on the website
the day after it plays on TV, and the same reason you can’t
download TV episodes from iTunes.
This is because Canadian networks like Global and CTV have
paid for the right to broadcast those shows, and would no doubt raise a
hue and cry if they were suddenly available for free on the
Internet.
That might destabilize the entire Canadian broadcasting
business model, which relies on access to U.S. hits.
A Small Selection Of Clips
On a more recent visit to
The Daily Show website, I was automatically redirected to thecomedynetwork.ca,
which carries episodes of the Comedy Central show in Canada.
At least after a pseudo-friendly message popped up saying how
“some jerk blocked ComedyCentral.com”
and that this was a “load of crap,” but that
clicking on the link would take you to The Comedy Network for all your
favourites “and a whole whack of homegrown
hilarity”.
You can watch some recent episodes of The Daily Show at the
Canadian site, but there is only a small selection, in contrast to the
complete show archive that is available at the U.S. site. I guess
it’s better than a blank screen, but not by much.
Written by Mathew Ingram, a technology journalist. Catch his views on the intersection between media and the web at MathewIngram.com. This post is licensed under the Creative Commons.
