Your daily moment of Zen is now on Hulu! The upstart video streaming service announced yesterday that it is offering full-length episodes and clips of Comedy Central favorites The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report. The comedy channel will also post full-length episodes of its faux-news shows on comedycentral.com after several years of providing only clips.
Through its subsidiary, MTV Networks, Viacom is the first major content provider to ink a deal with Hulu since the site launched with support from News Corp. and NBC Universal earlier this year. Later in June, Hulu will also add PBS content including the science shows Nova, Scientific American Frontiers, and Wired Science. Yesterday's announcement now gives Hulu a total of 70 content providers with more than 700 television shows and movies to choose from.
An online video partnership is an about face for Viacom, which has a reputation for being very protective of its material. It has been fiercely pursuing legal action against YouTube for copyright infringement, and has largely kept video content on its own network of Websites. This may herald a more enthusiastic approach to online distribution for Viacom, but the company has not announced any other content for Hulu.
Ironically, while Viacom may not be a fan of YouTube, its new partner has its own channel on Google's video destination. Who knows? Maybe Stewart and Colbert will eventually come full circle and end up on the site, this time with Viacom's blessing.
CREDIT - PC World contributor Ian Paul
