« Dublin Juggling Convention 2006 | Norris^2 »

Daily No-Show

I was pleased to find out that Apple is now offering episodes of The Daily Show for download in in the iTunes store. I'm as big a fan of Jon Stewart as you can be living in a country with no Daily Show. The first time I saw him was in the (reportedly entirely ad libbed) exchange he has with Will Ferrell in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (the news interview scene). The last time I saw him was in the few clips of him hosting the Oscars that were left in RTÉ's abridged (read "shitty") coverage of that event. Essentially I've seen enough of this guy to know that I'm missing out on something great, so I welcomed the news that I would finally be able to see The Daily Show, even if it was going to cost $2 an episode.

Apparently Apple (or the TV company selling it to them) is less keen on me seeing it. It's only available in the US iTunes store, and my Irish account doesn't work there. Boo. Let me get this straight: I live in a country where American political satire will never have enough mass appeal to get onto TV. I'm willing to pay real money, right now, to the producers of that content to let me download and watch it, using an infrastructure that is already in place. And they won't let me.

These are the same people who complain that distribution of their content on file-sharing networks is damaging their businesses. They have no-one to blame but themselves.

Comments:
Thu, 09th Mar 2006 (22:09)

Part of the problem may be your store is linked to the GB store administrativly, and the UK rights to The Daily Show broadcast are owned by C4, or, more specifically, broadcast on E4 every day.

But yes, it's a bugger.

by Aquarion
Thu, 09th Mar 2006 (22:09)

Most of the best bits from the show are online at the comedy central website. I've taken to watching it each week from there, but recently the college network has become too slow. Its also on More 4 at 8:30, if you have sky digital.

by Joe
Fri, 10th Mar 2006 (11:39)

You're probably right, Aquarion. The More4 broadcast did occur to me. I'm not sure how much effect Web sales would have on the More4 viewership (if any), but retaining the rights to distribute the show online in the UK/Ireland would probably reduce the amount they could charge Channel 4.

Joe, I didn't know they had clips on the website. I'll have to check that out.

by Rory
Tue, 14th Mar 2006 (21:02)

Rory, you are aware that Ireland is considered a second class country arent you? That why the only way for us to actually have acces t the shows we want, in the format we want at the time we want them is to commit acts of piracy. The truth is that if they produce the programming and supply it to otehrs we too have the right to see it - if they are unwilling to provide a "legal" way to do that it is our DUTY as people who believe in freedom of information to do what we must to get a hold of it and give it to others … in return for other stuff … ahem.

by Ronan Lowe
Thu, 23rd Mar 2006 (18:31)

I used to watch him when I was in america for a J1 summer before last. Ah those were good days! :-/ I too noticed recently that I cant download 'em on iTunes. CNN International have a weekly show of his shows - not sure what day its on.

by bob

About this post

This piece was posted on Thu, 09th Mar 2006 at 20:02.

You can find other posts at the front page or, if you're feeling lucky, check out a random post.