Comedy Network Low-Jacked Comedy Central.

So I read on Stereogum that The Daily Show has posted a new website disconnected from Comedy Central. Alright let's blog about that. First maybe I should check out the site though. Oh no we won't. Things are involved.

Seriously try out this link to www.thedailyshow.com. Note the address that appears in your bottom status bar. Now click on it. Well it seems like you've been re-directed to a site you had no intentions on visiting. Strange.

Hmm. Let's try www.comedycentral.com. Hey look that's re-directed too.

Just a quick explanation: The Comedy Network is a Canadian cable television channel that plays various funny (and often unfunny) shows. Comedy Central is an American cable television channel that does the same. The Comedy Network syndicates a lot of shows off Comedy Central (like The Daily Show). Up until recently one was able to access either network's websites to watch streamed content. No longer. Here's a CTV news story about the issue (be aware that CTV owns The Comedy Network).

So what's going on here? This has happened to me before when trying to gain access to a certain site hosting bittorrent files. The site blocked my access because of the different laws in Canada in regard to copyrights. I wasn't really aware sites were able to block sites based on country of origin. And now this is what The Comedy Network is doing. They are re-directing Canadian traffic to their own site--essentially blocking Canadian access to Comedy Central on the net.

So what's the deal with this? I don't want to rant but where does The Comedy Network get off blocking perfectly reasonable access to Comedy Central? Blah blah blah Google and China, but like Comedy Central is an American channel that can only be accessed through illegal methods in Canada. Their website, however, was a way to watch Comedy Central content not available on The Comedy Network and further had a greater selection of streamable content.

According to the deal The Comedy Network will have access to all of Comedy Central content but will they be hosting that all on their site? For instance can I stream content from a show The Comedy Network doesn't air but is still aired on Comedy Central? And am I going to have access to the archives that The Daily Show's new site hosts? This was an awesome feature that I don't see on The Comedy Network. Also I'm not really able to stream any of the content because it requires a plug-in that won't install correctly onto my computer (that one's probably on me though).

But beyond these issues of comparable content access, I think this whole tactic is a rather cheap way to promote that their "website doesn't suck anymore." I don't really care that it doesn't suck. I may not use it regardless because, yeah, I too am that petty. So, please don't block my access to websites whether you claim to offer the same content or not. This is America dammit and I should be able to go wherever I want on the internet. Be that porn, porn, or porn.