• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, February 17, 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.

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

To better compete against Hulu, the joint video venture between NBC Universal and News Corp, CBS is in the process of bolstering the platform with social-networking features.

According to Nielsen Online, 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, senior vice president of entertainment and lifestyle, CBS Interactive.

However, competing data 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 versus 355,000 last May. Videos per viewer, minutes per viewer, and minutes per video for the site also declined, according to comScore.

TV.com presently competes against a number of Web TV upstarts, including Joost, Sling, Veoh, Fancast and Hulu. Hulu drew more than 22 million unique viewers in November; they spent an average of two hours on the site over the course of the month.