COMEDY CENTRAL� AND CTV DEAL FOR LAUGHS WITH MULTI-PLATFORM CONTENT DEAL FOR COMEDY CENTRAL'S PROGRAM LIBRARY
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Deal Delivers Full Library to Broadcast, Broadband, VOD, Mobile and More
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Multi-Year Deal Locks Up "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," "The Colbert Report,"
"South Park," "The Sarah Silverman Program" And More
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NEW YORK, June 27, 2007 -- COMEDY CENTRAL and Canadian broadcaster CTV have concluded a comprehensive, multi-year content deal between CTV and the Viacom-owned (NYSE: VIA and VIA.B) cable network, it was announced today by Michele Ganeless, executive vice president and general manager, COMEDY CENTRAL and Susanne Boyce, president of programming for CTV and chair of the CTV Media Group. The multi-platform deal delivers exclusive broadcast and digital rights (including broadband, video-on-demand and mobile) to the entire COMEDY CENTRAL program slate and allows CTV to program the content across any number of platforms in Canada, including on its leading specialty channel The Comedy Network.
The deal provides CTV access to all COMEDY CENTRAL programming, featuring more than 200 hours of current series, including full episodes of the Emmy� and Peabody� Award-winning series "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "South Park," "The Colbert Report," "The Sarah Silverman Program," "Lil' Bush," "Mind of Mencia," "RENO 911!," "The Showbiz Show with David Spade," "Drawn Together" and the soon-to-premiere "American Body Shop." In addition, CTV retains the rights for the complete COMEDY CENTRAL back catalog of programs. (See "Highlights of the Deal" below).
As part of the deal, all Canadian-based web traffic to COMEDY CENTRAL's on-line assets will be geo-gated and re-directed to The Comedy Network's www.thecomedynetwork.ca. These assets include: www.comedycentral.com, www.southparkstudios.com, www.jokes.com, and www.colbertnation.com.
"This deal builds on a longstanding and great relationship between two of the preeminent comedy networks and expands our association with CTV into the digital landscape, maximizing the value of our distinctive content and making the COMEDY CENTRAL brand available to our northern neighbors anywhere and everywhere they want it," said Ganeless.
"COMEDY CENTRAL has an undeniable track record for being on the leading edge of funny," said Boyce. "With this new strategic content deal in place, CTV gets exclusive access to a vast supply of top comedy titles, plus the flexibility to program them to viewers on the platform of their choice. It's a winning deal for Canadians coast-to-coast."
"The Comedy Network offers an unrivalled slate of original Canadian productions, and armed with this deal, we are better able to deliver Canadians a schedule to die (laughing) for," said Ed Robinson, CTV senior vice president of comedy and variety programming and general manager of The Comedy Network.
Highlights of the Deal
� Television -- Exclusive access to all COMEDY CENTRAL programming, including more than 200 hours of current COMEDY CENTRAL branded original programs, such as the full roster of episodes from "The Daily Show," "The Colbert Report" and "South Park." In addition, CTV secures the rights for the complete COMEDY CENTRAL back catalog of programs.
� Online and Broadband -- Exclusive online and broadband rights to full episodes, plus all clips, shorts, wallpapers, ring-tones and other online content created for "The Daily Show," "The Colbert Report," "South Park" along with other current series and the COMEDY CENTRAL back catalog, plus all original broadband and online content created for comedycentral.com, where cleared for Canada.
� Video-on-Demand -- Exclusive rights to "The Daily Show," "The Colbert Report" and "South Park" along with other current series and back catalog programs where cleared for Canada.
� Mobile -- Exclusive rights to full episodes of "The Daily Show," "The Colbert Report" and "South Park" along with other current series and back catalog programs, plus all clips, shorts, wallpapers, ring-tones and other online content created for these programs, access to more than one thousand clips and all other COMEDY CENTRAL mobile content cleared for use in Canada.
About CTV
CTV, Canada's largest private broadcaster, offers a wide range of quality news, sports, information, and entertainment programming. It has the number-one national newscast, CTV National News With Lloyd Robertson, and is the number-one choice for prime-time viewing. CTV owns 21 conventional television stations across Canada and has interests in 16 specialty channels, including the number-one Canadian specialty channel, TSN. CTV is owned by CTVglobemedia, Canada's premier multi-media company. More information about CTV may be found on the company website at www.ctv.ca.
About The Comedy Network
Canada's first-and-only specialty comedy service, The Comedy Network airs comedy of all kinds, 24-hours-a-day, across multiple platforms, including a revolutionary broadband service at thecomedynetwork.ca. Launched in October 1997, The Comedy Network broadcasts, uncut and uncensored, an eclectic mix of scripted, stand-up, sketch, improv, and animated comedy - as well as topical comedy talk shows, game shows and classic situation comedies. Offering an unrivalled slate of original Canadian programming, The Comedy Network reinvests nearly 50 per cent of its revenues into home-grown productions. The Comedy Network, a division of CTV Television Inc., is available to nearly 6 million households across the country. Visit The Comedy Network's website at www.thecomedynetwork.ca.
About COMEDY CENTRAL
COMEDY CENTRAL, the only all-comedy network, currently is seen in more than 91 million homes nationwide. COMEDY CENTRAL is owned by, and is a registered trademark of, Comedy Partners, a wholly-owned division of VIACOM Inc.'s (NYSE: VIA and VIA.B) MTV Networks. COMEDY CENTRAL's Internet address is www.comedycentral.com. For up-to-the-minute and archival press information and photographs visit Press Central, COMEDY CENTRAL's press web site at www.comedycentral.com/press.
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