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Viacom pulls 'Daily Show,' 'Colbert Report,' and other shows offline in wake of DirecTV dispute

Viacom pulls 'Daily Show,' 'Colbert Report,' and other shows offline in wake of DirecTV dispute

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Viacom has pulled online streaming of television episodes from several of its sites, including MTV, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon, in the wake of its contract dispute with DirecTV.

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Daily Show blocked online
Daily Show blocked online

Viacom pulled 26 of its channels from DirecTV today as a result of failed contract renegotiations between the two companies. As noted by the Washington Post, Viacom has now turned off one of the few fallbacks for DirecTV customers, putting a halt on the streaming of full-length episodes from several of its websites. MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, and several others have removed episodes from their sites — trying to watch an episode of The Daily Show returns the above notice that they are no longer available — and instead visitors are treated to an ad prompting viewers to call DirecTV and complain about the outage.

With no easy way to determine just which internet users are DirecTV subscribers or not, Viacom has yanked online streaming for all visitors, so even if you're a happily-paying Time Warner Cable customer with access to MTV on your television, you'll still be left hanging on the streaming front. Some programs on Hulu are also said to have been pulled. The move was no doubt prompted by a new section of DirecTV's website dubbed "Other Ways To Watch," that has been directing subscribers to online sources where they could view programming caught up in the blackout.