• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, February 16, 2009

Giving rival Web TV portals a run for their money, TV.com posted a 263% increase in unique viewers in January, according to new data from Nielsen VideoCensus.

To boot, during that month, the CBS-owned destination for full-length video recorded a 1,261% increase in streams, and a 4,435% increase in minutes viewed.

According to Nielsen Online, meanwhile, TV.com achieved a 19% increase in monthly users in January, along with a 26% increase in visits, and a 43% increase in minutes spent on the site.

"We are seeing more and more people turning to TV.com," said Anthony Soohoo, SVP of entertainment and lifestyle, CBS Interactive.

Competing data, however, recently showed that TV.com was suffering from increased competition. According to comScore Video Metrix, TV.com's unique viewers dropped 55% last November to 160,000 vs. 355,000 last May. Videos per viewer, minutes per viewer, and minutes per video for the site also declined, according to the comScore service.

TV.com presently competes against a number of Web TV upstarts, including Joost, Sling, Veoh, Fancast, and Hulu -- the joint video venture between NBC Universal and News Corp. Hulu, for one, drew over 22 million unique viewers in November, who spent an average of two hours on the site over the course of the month.

To better compete against Hulu, CBS -- which acquired TV.com along with CNet last year -- is in the process of bolstering the platform with social networking features.

TV.com, which features Hulu content, more recently added CBS shows, along with content from MGM, Sony, PBS, Endemol, USA and Showtime.