Viacom's Hostility to Web Users Continues

Since launching its new Web site for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, the Comedy Central network, whose parent company is Viacom, has as yet not offered an RSS feed for clips of the popular show (for now, you can use this one). As it releases new shows, such as Lewis Black's Root of All Evil and Lil Bush, it does so without providing an RSS feed for clips, as it used to here for earlier shows.

Meanwhile, Viacom blocks access to its new Daily Show site (and its Comedy Central site in the U.S.) to all Canadian users. Canadian users are redirected to the Comedy Network site in Canada which doesn't offer the same capabilities. Similarly, U.S. visitors to the Comedy Network site are sent to Comedy Central. This has nothing to do with a violation of the concept of Net Neutrality but simply the aggressive re-routing of Web users based on the IP of their incoming country to a version of a site tailored for that country (not an uncommon practice). The difference is that this decision has been made to allow Viacom to separate advertising contracts sold to the two countries' media markets. Canadian users have no easy ways of re-routing their traffic to the site they want.

Our Facebook applications with embedded videos from these shows like Daily Show News and Comedy Central Videos as well as clips embedded in blogs like this one block Canadian viewers from watching - they just appear broken. Yet, the company's Flash player encourages people to share and embed videos.

Ironically, viewers to the new South Park Studios website trying to watch clips of the recent Canada On Strike episode see Terrence and Phillip saying "Good News Buddy!":

While blocking Canada is clearly a business decision which screws over Canadian residents, the decision not to offer RSS may simply be a technical feature they have not yet implemented. However, more likely, it's a conscious decision to force people back to visiting their websites. Apparently, the market value of YouTube didn't make them think twice of the value of RSS and viral embedding. It reminds me of A billionaire's guide to stopping "theft" of your online newspaper content...and relegating your business to obscurity.

The unwillingness to offer RSS makes no sense to me because Viacom can make money by selling video commercials which run ahead of the embedded videos and Website clips.

Technorati Tags: comedy central, net neutrality, viacom, canada, the daily show, south park, canada blocked

Comments

[Toresica]

FYI, The Comedy Network is part of CTVGlobeMedia, not Viacom.

I don't know the details of this particular case, but usually when we get blocked, it's because the Canadian broadcaster has the rights to air the show in Canada so the American broadcaster isn't allowed to let Canadians see it.

[Rich]

It's very simple to get into the site. Find a proxy server that will provide a US IP Address. Most web savvy users do this.