YouTube-Viacom trial turns comic

As if its court battle with Viacom wasn't funny enough, YouTube has now asked for testimony from Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert - the faux newsmen whose exploits on Viacom's Comedy Central cable TV channel once made for prime viewing material on the video-sharing site. According to a filing with the New York federal court …

[Joe K]

1 BILLION?!?

The logic of the stations baffles me.

So some kid posts it on Youtube, so that means that Comedy Central lost 340 million viewers as the WHOLE of America is watching it for free courtesy of Google instead?!

If anything needs satirical comedians, its that courtroom.

[Duncan Hothersall]

Truthiness

I really hope Colbert takes full advantage of this opportunity and talks about the truthiness of Viacom's claims...

[Chris]

Surprise witnesses...

... each more surprising than the last! Sounds like Google aren't as confident as they say they are about their safe haven claim if they're even thinking about stunts like this.

[Mike Norton]

Tip of the hat...

.....Wag of the finger is in order?

[Tim Porter]

Colbert has already slated Viacom

Kind of surprised to see this hasn't already been mentioned in the story, but Colbert has ridiculed Viacom over the whole YouTube spat on more than one The Colbert Report- and very funnily too.

Also surprised to see no mention another Viacomm sued YouTube for having a video of a Colbert _parody_ .

[J]

Not faux...

Stewart and Colbert? I wouldn't call then faux newsmen. I'd call then the BEST newsmen, specially Stewart. Much better than watching the "regular" news -- where they keep a straight face when they are lying to you. With these guys, at least you know what's going on... And yes, Colbert does pretend to be someone else: Papa Bear.

Redstone was in an episode of the Colbert Report (by phone), and yes, he ain't funny. Although Colbert made him seem funny enough.

[Dillon Pyron]

Timeliness?

Let's see, how many times does Comedy Central show Stewart and Colbert? Twice? Once at night and again the next day. So when the shows turn up on YouTube the next week, just how much are they losing?

"Mr. Redstone, since the shows first started appearing on YouTube, how have the ratings been affected?"

"Umh, erh, The Daily Show is up five points and The Colbert Report is up six."

"How has ad revenue changed in that time period?"

"Well, ah, ad revenue for The Daily Show is up eight and a half per cent and for The Colbert Report it's up seven per cent."

"How much of a loss does this equate to?"

[Anonymous Coward]

Re Dillon Pyron

It's a small point to note but that could still equate to a loss if the growth in ratings and ad revenue, whilst positive can still be lossy if the long term trend rate is above this. Pedantic - but it's something that's been pissing me off with newspaper "stats" recently...