CBS is expanding the content on TV.com in the hopes of making the site a video destination, reports MediaBuyerPlanner.

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. In the last month, TV.com was redesigned to better promote the thousands of TV episodes it offers. CBS is also adding a community layer to the videos to encourage user interaction, with users able to rate episodes and write reviews.

By making TV.com — a site CBS inherited when it bought CNET last year — a community and content destination, CBS pits it against Hulu.com.

Hulu, the lovechild of Fox and NBCU, hosts TV, film and web content. Ad spend on Hulu in the US alone is expected to eclipse global ad spend on first-mover video site YouTube. 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 US.

TV.com'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 unexclusive, the site won't be the only web source for the shows it features — so CBS plans for it instead to be the most comprehensive. Community interaction will help the site move beyond Hulu, CBS hopes.

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

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