• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, April 12, 2007

CBS is about to make a major push to distribute TV shows online. The TV network said today it's forged deals with a host of companies including AOL, MSN, CNET Networks, Joost, Veoh, Brightcove and others to syndicate ad-supported shows on the Web.

The agreements will provide for online syndication of prime-time programs like "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," and "Survivor," as well as sports and news. CBS months ago entered into a separate distribution deal with YouTube; today's announcement didn't include information about whether that arrangement will continue.

Of the various companies, one of the most closely watched is Joost, a start-up by the founders of Kazaa and Skype that promises to deliver fast, high-quality shows via peer-to-peer technology. With this deal, CBS becomes the first major broadcast network to sign with Joost, but former corporate sibling Viacom tapped the start-up several months ago for Web distribution.

CBS seeks to retain 90% of the ad revenue, while sharing the other 10% with distribution partners, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Of course, CBS also runs its own Web sites, like innertube, created last year, and SportsLine.com. While CBS can presumably retain all the ad/sponsorship revenue from those sites, there's a limit to how many viewers can stream at the same time from the company's own sites. Consider, earlier this year, when CBS offered streams of the NCAA playoffs, the company anticipated backlogs at its own sites -- which was obviously one of the reasons it tapped YouTube to create an NCAA channel.