Viacom's Atom Films and iFilm websites have been brought under the care of Doug Herzog, president of Comedy Central/Spike/TV Land, with the idea that comedy is ideal for capitalizing on the popularity of online videos - and challenging YouTube.

Atom Films re-launched this week after iFilm did the same last month, with the content on both sites leaning heavily on comedy, Ad Age reports. Atom will focus on short-form, independently produced videos, while iFilm will feature clips from shows under the MTV Networks umbrella.

After seeing the popularity of its copyrighted clips from shows such as SouthPark and The Daily Show on YouTube, Viacom decided to itself make content available to users online. Moreover, the professionally produced content is more attractive to advertisers concerned about inappropriate content on sites such as YouTube.

Another possibility is that Viacom may go back to YouTube for a content-distribution deal, based on how well received the comedy clips are on Atom Films and iFilm. However, a concern might be that the content would no longer be exclusive, and viewers would  migrate back to YouTube to view it.