Jon Stewart Goes From Oscars To iTunes

The iTunes music store got an injection of "truthiness" on Wednesday--that subjective currency churned out by Stephen Colbert, host of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report." That and its fake news counterpart, "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," were added to iTunes, where consumers can now purchase the shows for $1.99 a pop.

Fans of the shows can also opt for iTunes' new "multi-pass" feature, which gets them a month's worth of 16 episodes for $9.99. Repeat shows will not be included in the 16 consecutive episodes purchased.

"Fans of the most trusted names in fake news can now take Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert with them everywhere they go," Michele Ganeless, Comedy Central's executive vice president and general manager, said in a statement.

Comedy Central, along with Viacom's other cable networks, has already added loads of shows onto Apple's iTunes. The pay-to-play model on iTunes--fast becoming a mandatory outlet for all content owners--represents just one of several strategies that Viacom is presently exploring.

Consumers can already download complete ad-free episodes of MTV's "Beavis & Butthead" and "Real World/Road Rules Challenge"; Comedy Central's "South Park" and "Drawn Together"; and Nickelodeon's "SpongeBob SquarePants" and "Dora the Explorer," among others.

Many of Viacom's networks already offer their programs in their entirety on DVD, or in selected bits and pieces on broadband video channels, as in the case of MTV's "Overdrive," VH1's "V Spot," and Comedy Central's "MotherLoad". The broadband channels' content is packaged with 15- and 30-second pre-roll advertising.

The Viacom-owned programs join iTunes' growing cache of big-budget entertainment. Disney's ABC was the first to get on board, offering its two prime-time hits "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost" when Apple debuted iTunes' video store last October.

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