Streaming TV and movie site Hulu said in a blog post today that it is “extremely happy to announce a broad content agreement between Viacom and Hulu that brings The Daily Show and The Colbert Report back to Hulu and now also to Hulu Plus, beginning this morning.”
The shows have been absent from the service since last year when Viacom pulled them. At the time, Viacom CEO Phillippe Dauman said that “on the current economic model for Hulu, there’s just not much in it for us to continue at this time.” It appears that things have changed.
According to the terms of the deal, which are scarce, each of the shows will be available the morning after they originally air. In addition, other programming from MTV, Comedy Central, VH1, TV Land, BET and others will be added to Hulu Plus, Hulu’s pay subscription service. For many of these shows, however, they will only be available 21 days after their on-air premiere.
The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but the deal is a boost for Hulu.
Dauman said in the release that Hulu’s subscription service, which had not launched at the time the shows were pulled, is a reason for their return.
“The Hulu Plus service offers us the opportunity to connect with our audiences through an exciting subscription and ad supported platform that is complementary to our existing distribution arrangements,” said Dauman.
Whatever the reason, we know that we’re excited for the return of one TV’s best news sources to Hulu.