Viacom will remove "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart," "The Colbert Report" and other Comedy Central programs from the online Hulu next week. The decision highlights the large gulf between the
expectations of consumers wanting free and easily accessible content on the Internet and the media companies seeking a more profitable business model online. Still, the 3-year-old Hulu dominates the
mushrooming market for online full-episode TV viewing, with more than 44 million monthly visitors, according to comScore.
The site's monthly video view totals have surged in recent
months, from 580 million last September to 1.01 billion last December. But Hulu is unprofitable, according to analysts. The site's ad sales staff has struggled and a partial pay model has been
discussed by its owners, which include three of the broadcast networks, ABC, NBC and Fox. Comedy Central will continue to stream full episodes of the news satires on TheDailyShow.com and
ColbertNation.com. Hulu will direct users to those sites.
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