Viacom (VIA, VIAB), which is having a fee dispute with DirecTV (DTV), said Tuesday that The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report returned from their annual two-week summer hiatus last night.
Reports said last week that Viacom had pulled all its full episode content from the web. However, the firm said it still has thousands of full episodes available online for free, and that it brought The Daily Show and Colbert back online to coincide with their return with new episodes.
The Daily Show wasted no time in weighing in on DIRECTV's ongoing blackout of Viacom channels and the show continues to exercise its creative and editorial freedom, Viacom added.
''We hope this is helpful to our fans with DIRECTV who have yet to switch to a cable/satellite provider that carries Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, MTV, BET and all our 26 networks,'' Viacom said.
VIA closed on Tuesday at $49.08, up $0.24 or 0.48 percent from the previous close.
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