• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, August 9, 2010

And you thought just adding a pay component to the Hulu site -- HuluPlus -- was just to get more money from consumers? Nah. Seems one of the bigger pieces of the puzzles is getting more content providers to come aboard.

Now it seems CBS is interested in possibly adding its TV shows to the Hulu site. Why? Les Moonves, president and chief executive officer of CBS Corp. says he just wants to make sure he's getting paid the right value for the company's TV shows -- this, according to a recent Reuters interview.

For the last several years, big media companies have been fooling around with their TV shows: offering them up free to consumers (with advertising support), alternatively widening and narrowing syndication plans.

Now the fooling around is over. Media companies are pressed to figure out how to make money from online airings. Some are looking to add more commercial time, matching the commercial loads seen on traditional TV.

CBS has been a hold-out from Hulu, which consists of four partners: three major media companies, Disney-ABC, News Corp. and NBC Universal, and private media investment company, Blackstone Partners.

CBS executives said the problem with Hulu has been one of control and exclusivity. Apparently, CBS didn't want to ink an exclusive deal with Hulu -- but wanted to syndicate its shows far and wide to grab the biggest range of eyeballs and the most advertising dollars.

But now with a Hulu paid component, CBS could complement its free, ad-supported TV viewing, with perhaps TV showings with fewer commercials, and additional value from more content.

At the same time, CBS could look to grow and mimic its new-ish "dual revenue" financial process online, with the paid component (in addition to advertising support) coming directly from consumers. With traditional TV airing, payment comes from growing retransmission revenues from cable operators (and also retransmission shared-revenues from TV affiliates).

Other media companies might also come forward to Hulu now. Word is Viacom and Time Warner executive might be moved to talk as well.