CBS to push online video on TV.com

CBS Interactive continues to shake up the properties gained in the CNET acquisition, as it will move to make TV.com a more online video-centric entity. While the site, offering comprehensive information about almost 19,000 TV shows, may appear to be morphing into a Hulu clone, the network insists it is positioning TV.com as a different sort of destination.

TV.com launched in 2005 and currently is more similar to IMDB.com than Hulu or Veoh, offering news, gossip, social media and just a smattering of video and photo content about the world of television. CBS Interactive would like to take TV.com's solid base of more than 16 million unique monthly visitors and give them premium online video content at the same location. Although CBS CEO Leslie Moonves acknowledged that his company makes a mere 2 percent of its revenue from streaming online video episodes of TV shows, he told investors last week that TV.com is an exciting opportunity. He also made it clear that TV.com will remain broadcaster agnostic, accepting partnerships from a variety of content owners to deliver a more diverse site experience.

TV.com is already experiencing a lift, according to statistics generated by NielsenOnline indicating increases in unique viewers, video streams, total minutes streamed and streams per user. But it remains to be seen how effective TV.com will be as an online video provider, given its late start in shifting to focus on the medium. It does have a richer interactive offering than most online video platforms, and the high level of audience participation in polls and discussion boards could signal an advertising gold mine if the site begins to highlight and improve its video offering in conjunction with its other, already popular content. 

For more:
- paidcontent.org has an in-depth article about CBS's TV.com play 

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