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The comic is unpersuaded by Viacom‘s consumer call to arms in the contract dispute with DirecTV that left its 20M customers without the media giant’s 17 channels. “None of this is indispensable,” Stewart said on his show last night. He chides Viacom for urging subscribers to demand the channels “like it’s a basic cable Arab Spring.” As for Viacom’s decision to remove many of its TV videos from the Web (obviously not this one), he asks: “What are you? China?”
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It matters to me…I want the Daily Show…daily.
A typical liberal who cannot recognize the basic mechanism of a free market: consumers have choices, and businesses like Direct TV need to compete by giving them what they want. Of course the situation doesn’t matter to a smug elitist like Stewart– he’s wealthy, and has cool friends and plenty to entertain him. He has no understanding of the typical viewer who pays burdensome fees to one TV supplier, only to suddenly find out it no longer has what they want. Now those people must arrange something else, often at a higher cost. But Jon Stewart makes swell jokes. Because he doesn’t get it.
I think what he was saying was anyone with an internet connection, and half a brain, could find the show and watch it anyway. Oh wait, you didn’t see it, did you?
I really hate the whole “then watch it online” mentality. I don’t spend almost $150 a month for HD Television and invest in a home theater system to watch my favorite shows on a my 7 inch kindle screen.
I understand that as a business it’s up to Direct TV to provide there customers with the services they want, but in this case I still put the blame on viacom – and all they are doing is having people realize they can live without watching there shows…
Hey there zanferwhatever, if Jon Stewart was a “typical liberal”, then the democratic party would be thriving. I love how you fringe right wingers only defense is calling someone a “typical liberal”. I think Jon Stewart understands the free market much better than you or I actually. He is intelligent, hysterical, self-deprecating comedian that has one of the best shows on television. And in regards to Kes idiotic comment, that an “inordinate (how you really spell it) amount of people in this nation take what they broadcast as really the news”. So wait, Fox News is more informative than The Daily Show? Wake up and smell what your shoveling boy, because The Daily Show jabs at all news, left, right, and center. News isn’t news anymore, it’s become editorialized and opinion only. Now why don’t you haters just go and yell for those kids to get off of your lawn now….
Let’s see now…”Liberal”? Check. “Free market”? Check. “Smug elitist”? Check. Congratulations, Zanaferal, you’ve made your conservative talking point quota for today!
But while on the subject of “no understanding,” you obviously failed to grasp Stewart’s point that there’s a ton of other content out there to grab viewers’ attention that it makes no sense for Viacom to act like they have much leverage with media providers. And as Tricia remarked, when you now have an entire generation torrenting files over the interwebz, whatever leverage Viacom DOES have becomes even more microscopic.
It” true he doesn’t get it.
What makes the whole situation even sadder if you will is that an inordinant amount of people in this nation take what The Daily Show broadcasts is really the news.
Just like an inordinate amount of people in this nation take what FOX News says is really the news….oh wait FOX News is entertainment so those air heads at FOX don’t have to really make sense.
@Kes,
Just so we’re clear, you chimed in with “what that guy said” after the guy you agreed with (zanaferal) had already had his lame comment completely eviscerated on every level by a person much smarter then him (Brian Davison).
Then you made a ridiculous non-sequitur about people thinking The Daily Show is a real news program. Just so you know for future reference, people who watch The Daily Show are smart enough to know it’s an entertainment show that offers commentary on the media coverage of news stories. They don’t break news or report things live. They do satire.
And it’s obvious where you get your “news,” Kes.
To be fair to Kes, he commented right after Zanfer. He just started a new thread instead of replying. That doesn’t make him right though. He’s still wrong.
Cable is hardly a free market, what with the government granted monopolies and force bundling and all.
A truely free market would mean I could subscribe to the channels I want from time warner or comcast or cox etc…instead I get to choose from comcast and directv..I can’t even get a dish signal where I live.
I get his point. And it is pretty easy to find the videos online. But, this is really ridiculous for some people who have no choice as consumers. My apartment building is locked into a contract with DirecTV. I can’t get cable here even if I wanted it. And I can’t get a signal for Dish. (Which doesn’t have AMC right now, which is a bigger problem anyway.) And none of this is competitive in the first place, as mentioned above.
I think he does get it. When a show goes off the air you miss it then you find a replacement for it. Have any of you ever had a favorite show that ended or got cancelled. Directtv has added some addition channels as a compensation for this. The only channel I miss is the comedy channel. But I go online and watch TDS and CR and others or I read, watch something different or go and enjoy the world outside. viacom needs to wake up and understand. If you take the shows away the way they did then it pisses people off. And they don’t care when they come back or the protest and won’t watch.
I have not missed a single Viacom channel until this very moment, when I watched this clip and was reminded how funny Stewart is, and how much I want to watch The Daily Show.
Totally Agree! Fuck Viacom – I haven’t even noticed that channels are missing. And while I find Stewart funny on this video – I don’t watch him either. So as far as I’m concerned, DirecTV can take their time. I’m enjoying the free encore channels, and if it takes long enough – I’m looking forward to more free channels.
Never forget what America is about: Life, Liberty, the Pursuit of Happiness…AND the Right to Be Entertained!
I love TDS and CR. I really wish I could watch. The only good satire nowadays. Yet I think my 9 year old is the most affected. I’ll hold out though. No way am I going to pay more for channels that are on the decline.
Jon, how about a giant paycut? You take less money and Viacom can charge DirecTV less and then we can pay less. Then we get our shows back. No one gets hurt.
…and tell Colbert to give some money back.
If a huge corporation is making a LOT of money off of Stewart, then how stupid would he have to be to accept a pay cut? I don’t see Viacom volunteering to take less money from the enterprise if their costs go down – corporations do NOT pass on their savings to the consumer – duh. They crow about them in quarterly reports to stockholders.
In Stewart’s case, why should an individual who shows up and does excellent work be paid less than what he could make elsewhere for doing that work? Free market means that if Viacom wants him, Viacom pays him what he wants. He has been assessed by Viacom to have a market value, and that’s what he gets from them. Viacom CHOOSES to broadcast him, because he makes them money.
Directed to other commenters – too many to count!:
If you believe in the free market, then you also recognize DirecTV’s right to not purchase programming packages that they determine to cost more than they want to pay, whether or not that is a good business decision. They do know that Viacom can only make money if people SEE their programs, and as the – second? – largest (paid) delivery service in the country, it seems that DirecTV is NOT an entity for Viacom to think about screwing by raising their cost to that provider when competing (and less lucrative) distributors are paying Viacom less for the same product!
In a power play, it’s usually the one that has the most real power that wins; the one with the most direct interaction with the final consumer is the key power holder in most situations. Just ask WalMart. Without distribution, the product languishes – the programming might as well be widgets locked in a warehouse.
Viacom should have quietly given DirecTV a defined deadline extension while talks continued between companies, instead of forcing consumers to form an opinion about both companies’ motives – a business is bound to lose popularity or trust when exposing themselves to that much controversial public scrutiny.
And why are there any political sidings going on here? It’s all just business as usual, in the business world – we’re not talking about charities, or morals, or life and death situations – it’s BUSINESS, for crying out loud! It’s legal and accepted that success in a capitalistic venture is the primary motive for any and all actions of the participants. This is about money, and is being hijacked as a platform for political mudslinging.
Amusing how this became a GOP vs Democrat thing. With the GOPers apparently not bothering the watch enough to get the full context.
As for it being a “free market” argument, isn’t punishing non-Direct TV subscribers by pulling the episodes kind of anti-competitive? and against free market? I know dozens of ways to get all those episodes without cable or their websites, so Stewart’s point about it hurting them by cutting off only the “old people” is a very valid argument.
Also, what do you think is going to happen when Direct TV caves and pays what Viacom wants? Its simple – that cost will be passed on to the consumer. That $150 bill will simply become that $160 bill. You should be glad Direct TV is fighting because this “free market” example isn’t going to cost them much when the dust settles. But it will cost you.
Oh and don’t forget, Viacom will do this exact same thing when their Comcast, Warner Bros, Cox, etc contracts end so you GOPers might want to think about those long term consequences of just paying up. Yeah I know, thinking things through is frowned on by your Fox News masters. Still fight that urge to just obey and remember it is ultimately about your wallet, not theirs. Direct TV and Viacom will protect their wallet just fine.
Jon’s comments were about Viacom’s blind self interest and the fact they seem to think this is the 1980′s and that no one can go online and find any of these shows for free. They must be high.
Hell even if Hulu stopped carrying them someone will upload the videos of the Daily Show and some of other popular shows on some upload site.
Though I doubt anyone will upload any FOX news “Episodes”. I don’t call them News shows mainly because, they are a bunch of made up stories to uphold the right wings believe, that if they lay on a bed long enough like Christopher Reeves in the movie “Somewhere in Time”, that they will all be magically teleported back to the 1950′s. good luck with that teabaggers. jk
So in closing, Jon’s makes fun of Viacom because he is a comedian, Viacom caves and learns a lesson that this is 2012, and On CNN it is reported that the whole cast of the “Fox News Sitcom” all mysteriously disappear after staring at a vintage portrait of Jane Seymore. Film at 11.
Thank you Jon for ATTEMPTING to put this into perspective! IT’S JUST SPONGEBOB! I’ll find “The Daily Show” online or through my gaming console and watch it a day later. I used to watch reruns of the show every day anyway, 24 hours ISN’T going to end the world…. OR IS IT?!?!?!
Viacom, keep your channels, there’s something else on. Really, having only seldom visited your channels, I wouldn’t have known you were gone, except for all the “I’m Right talk” whatever, I bet you’re advertisers sphinkters are tightening by the minute. Besides, except for comedy central, seems you’re demographic is 20 years and under. Don’t even understand the problem, shows go off the air all the time.