CC:Stand-up Direct offers hour-long stand-up comedian performances for $5 each, following a trail blazed by Louis C.K. July 11, 2013 9:15 AM PDT Comedy Central's new digital distribution site sells stand-up show downloads, and comics get a cut of the revenue. (Credit: Screenshot by Joan E. Solsman/CNET) It's no joke. Viacom is taking distribution cues from the man eating the stale Cinnabon sitting on his luggage before heading home from the airport. The media conglomerate's Comedy Central network launched a site Thursday selling unlimited streams and downloads of uncut, uncensored stand-up specials for $5 each. Related stories Post-YouTube, MTV revives the video star -- briefly The unlikely group putting the kibosh on cable TV: Parents Viacom launches music TV apps with on-demand video New Intel chips to boost battery life Amazon, Viacom sign deal for MTV, Comedy Central programs It's a page out of Louis C.K.'s book, following his experiment in late 2011. He produced a stand-up special himself and sold it on his Web site for $5 a pop without any digital-rights management protection, other than the comedian's polite request his fans please refrain from spreading the program on file-sharing sites like BitTorrent. The success of "Louis C.K.: Live at the Beacon Theater" sparked other comics to follow: Jim Gaffigan and Azis Ansari, for example. Now Comedy Central is taking the idea to scale. Viewers can purchase a Comedy Central stand-up special with a Paypal or Amazon account and get the program uncut, uncensored and commercial-free, plus bonus features when available. Titles on the Comedy Central site are also DRM free, meaning no system inhibits customers from downloading and streaming the special on multiple devices. The videos can be played across desktops, mobile devices, tablets and consoles. There are differences. Comics get a cut of the revenue, rather than the lion's share if they were distributing the shows themselves. Today at launch, the page has 22 original one-hour stand-up specials from comedians like Daniel Tosh, Anthony Jeselnik, Chris Hardwick, Nick Kroll, Jeff Ross and John Mulaney. Additional titles are coming, and new specials will be made available for purchase days after premieres on the network. Ooyala, a video-services provider, is powering the video on the site.
CC:Stand-up Direct offers hour-long stand-up comedian performances for $5 each, following a trail blazed by Louis C.K.
Comedy Central's new digital distribution site sells stand-up show downloads, and comics get a cut of the revenue.
(Credit: Screenshot by Joan E. Solsman/CNET)
It's no joke. Viacom is taking distribution cues from the man eating the stale Cinnabon sitting on his luggage before heading home from the airport.
The media conglomerate's Comedy Central network launched a site Thursday selling unlimited streams and downloads of uncut, uncensored stand-up specials for $5 each.
Related stories
- Post-YouTube, MTV revives the video star -- briefly
- The unlikely group putting the kibosh on cable TV: Parents
- Viacom launches music TV apps with on-demand video
- New Intel chips to boost battery life
- Amazon, Viacom sign deal for MTV, Comedy Central programs
It's a page out of Louis C.K.'s book, following his experiment in late 2011. He produced a stand-up special himself and sold it on his Web site for $5 a pop without any digital-rights management protection, other than the comedian's polite request his fans please refrain from spreading the program on file-sharing sites like BitTorrent.
The success of "Louis C.K.: Live at the Beacon Theater" sparked other comics to follow: Jim Gaffigan and Azis Ansari, for example. Now Comedy Central is taking the idea to scale.
Viewers can purchase a Comedy Central stand-up special with a Paypal or Amazon account and get the program uncut, uncensored and commercial-free, plus bonus features when available. Titles on the Comedy Central site are also DRM free, meaning no system inhibits customers from downloading and streaming the special on multiple devices. The videos can be played across desktops, mobile devices, tablets and consoles.
There are differences. Comics get a cut of the revenue, rather than the lion's share if they were distributing the shows themselves.
Today at launch, the page has 22 original one-hour stand-up specials from comedians like Daniel Tosh, Anthony Jeselnik, Chris Hardwick, Nick Kroll, Jeff Ross and John Mulaney. Additional titles are coming, and new specials will be made available for purchase days after premieres on the network. Ooyala, a video-services provider, is powering the video on the site.
