I have always agreed that TV shows should be available on the Internet for free. Users want to be able to watch what they want when they want without having to pay extra fees. Content such as this can be easily supported by advertising, grabbing the interest of millions of users that can be shown ads before and after, even during the show. Some networks such as CBS have allowed users to watch the current week’s episode of Survivor on the web for free (supported by advertising).

But to the best of my knowledge, this marks the first time a TV show has been this widely available on the Internet. Viacom has just launched a new service that lets you watch every episode of The Daily Show online for free. It’s supported simply by adding that shows every once in a while between videos as well as a short seven second ad as an introduction.

Viacom has been preparing since June over 13,000 clips to be featured on the Web site. Honestly, I would expect Viacom to be the last company to make a move like this, considering it is in the middle of a lawsuit against Google for illegally hosting its videos on YouTube. The launch of this new service will of course be closely watched by other companies interested in seeing if this will work and using it to their own advantage.

This could well be the first step in having all TV shows available on the Internet for free. now if they would learn to share their content on other sites. Oh well, one step at a time I guess.

[tags]daily show, jon stewart, internet television, internet tv[/tags]