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CBS Relaunches TV.com as Video Destination, Competes w/Hulu

Published on January 12, 2009 | Email this article

CBS is expanding the content available on the TV.com website in the hopes of making the site a video destination.

CBS announced today that it has non-exclusive distribution deals with PBS, Sony, MGM and Endemol that will help it to expand its library of online videos. By making TV.com - a site CBS acquired when it bought CNET last year - a destination, CBS is pitting it against NBC’s Hulu.com, Crain’s New York Business points out.

In the last month, TV.com was redesigned to better feature the thousands of television episodes it offers; it is also adding a community layer to the videos and encouraging user interaction, with users able to rate episodes and write reviews, according to The New York Times.

The site’s success will not be tied to the success of the network’s shows, according to Anthony Soohoo, who oversees the entertainment and lifestyle categories for CBS Interactive. Because the distribution deals are not exclusive, the site will not be the only source for the shows it features - so CBS plans for it instead to be the most comprehensive. The element of community interaction will help the site move beyond Hulu, CBS hopes.

Digital media research group Screen Digest says that Hulu - with content made up of professional TV shows and movies - is likely to give YouTube a run for its money in terms of advertising revenue this year. In 2008, YouTube is expected to generate about $100 million in the U.S., compared with $70 million at Hulu, but next year both are expected to pull about $180 million in the U.S., the Financial Times wrote in November.

The use of online video is expected to soar in coming years. By 2012, 90% of U.S. households will have access to broadband, with 94% of the individuals in these households watching online video, predicted In-Stat in its World Report on Online Video published in September 2008.

eMarketer predicts that online video ad spend will reach $1.9 billion by the end of 2011, up from an estimated $505 million in 2008.

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