New York
– Media conglomerate Viacom (NYSE: VIA), which owns Paramount Pictures and MTV Networks, will
remove Comedy Central content from the Hulu video portal joint venture as of
March 9, according to a Hulu blog post. After a 21-month stay, episodes of
popular Comedy Central programs like "The Daily Show" and "The
Colbert Report" will no longer be available on the ad-supported Hulu, a
joint venture between News Corp. (NYSE: NWS), NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) and Disney (NYSE: DIS).
"In the past
21 months, we’ve had very strong results for both Hulu and Comedy Central, in
terms of the views and revenue we’ve generated, thanks to a couple of key
trends," wrote Andy Forssell, Hulu’s senior vice president of content and
distribution.
"After a series of discussions with the team at Comedy
Central, though, we ultimately were unable to secure the rights to extend these
shows for a much longer period of time."
"We had a great experience
with Hulu, and we hope to work with its team again in the future," Comedy
Central said in a statement posted by PaidContent.
Related Links:
http://blog.hulu.com/2010/03/02/a-fond-farewell/
http://snipurl.com/umd73
(PaidContent)
