Good for CBS and their web portal TV.com, I wish you much success. I am of the belief that consumers will find good content. Your promotional efforts and the quality of your videos will drive people to your site. If they are looking for new shows like NCIS, How I Met Your Mother, or CSI, or older shows like Star Trek and Hart to Hart, TV.com will be the place. It is still early in the game and Hulu isn't the only player. Build the library and promote the titles; add social networking, fan polls, contests, and other value added pieces and make TV.com a must bookmark place to be.
On the business side, it also makes sense to stay independent and not join Hulu. How many content partnerships work. After some time, one partner gets bored with the other and the infighting begins. You've had partnerships with NBC before; are you ready for another one? It makes more sense to own 100% of the online business than 25-32% of it. Control your destiny, control the future.
No disrespect to Hulu; they are terrific with great content from NBC, Fox, and now Disney. But will the FCC have an issue with monopolistic type entity. TV.com can be as powerful a brand as any other. Why share it with others. And owning content enables you to build exclusivity around where it can be viewed. That is the power of CBS' video library and why they can stay independent.
