CBS today agreed to deals with Joost, Microsoft, ComCast, and Time Warner to begin allowing them to provide CBS content online in exchange for a share of all advertising revenue generated.

Some of the other companies involved in the online distribution deal include Brightcove, Veoh, Sling Media, AOL, Netvibes and CNET Networks.

CBS already distributes many of its shows online through Yahoo!, iTunes, and its own Web site.

Viewers will be able to watch shows like crime drama CSI, Survivor, Late Night With David Letterman, news, sports shows, and more with free content supported by advertising revenues which will be split between CBS and its partners.

According to an earlier report in the Wall Street Journal, the broadcaster had wanted to keep 90% of the ad revenues generated by its shows but, details of the exact division are not yet known.

This is big news for CBS as it allows it to further expand the reach of its content, add an additional source of revenue, and also perhaps even cut down on the number of people who grab CBS shows from P2P and file-sharing networks.

It’s also big news for Joost, the still fledgling on-demand online content distribution service from the guys behind KaZaA and Skype. It already worked out a deal with Viacom a few months back to offer content from MTV, Comedy Central, BET, and Paramount Pictures.

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Under terms of the agreement, CBS Radio will make up to a $2 million payment to New York non-profit entities to fund music education and appreciation programs.

CBS Radio also agreed to stop receiving payments and other inducements from record labels in exchange for airplay; to discontinue using independent promoters as a pass-through for securing airplay; to hire a compliance officer to monitor promotion practices; and to implement a system to detect future abuses.

According to Spitzer, certain stations owned by CBS Radio, formerly Infinity Broadcasting, openly solicited illegal financial benefits, expensive vacation packages, gift cards and other valuable items from record labels in exchange for playing the labels’ songs.

Spitzer said his payola investigation resulted in a lawsuit filed last March, against Entercom Communications Corp., (ETM) which was upheld by a judge earlier this week.

The companies will share revenue from advertising from the video clips. The deal was scheduled to begin Tuesday, the companies said.

The deal comes amid booming interest in watching video clips online and follows rival Google Inc.’s deal last week to buy popular online video service YouTube Inc. for $1.65 billion.

The stations owned by CBS Corp. will make about 10 to 20 breaking news clips and features from big markets such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago available to Yahoo viewers.

The separate agreements with CBS, Vivendi’s Universal Music Group and Sony BMG Music Entertainment come less than a month after YouTube reached a deal with Warner Music Group Corp. On Friday, Google Inc. was reported to be in talks to acquire the video site for $1.6 billion.

CBS Corp. said it will provide short-form video content for a CBS “brand channel” on YouTube’s site starting this month. It will include news, sports, Showtime and prime-time programming. Among the offerings CBS said it plans to offer are short clips from top programs including “Survivor,” as well as mini-previews for new fall shows.

YouTube and CBS will share revenue from advertising sponsorships of CBS Videos, CBS said.

“It is obviously phenomenally successful,” Moonves said of YouTube. “I doubt we would buy it at this point. Maybe we would look for the next YouTube, the next great idea that’s not spread across the world.”

Moonves also told a gathering of TV executives in London that while CBS is in the market to buy new media ventures, none of the social networking sites is in its sights.

He said Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp (NYSE:NWS – news) has done well with its acquisition of MySpace, but that others have not fared as well, without naming names.

All of the broadcast networks have aggressively pushed onto the Web over the past two years to interest more people in what they do, particularly at a time the audience for their evening newscasts is growing smaller and older.

ABC streams a “World News” unique to the Internet audience in the mid-afternoon. NBC’s Brian Williams contributes to both a video and written Web log during the day. However, NBC doesn’t make a replay of “Nightly News” available until 10:30 p.m. ET, after it is shown on television throughout the country.

The concern among network affiliates that Web simulcasts would slice into their TV audiences — making their advertising time less valuable — has been a barrier to TV networks doing this.

The TV industry is particularly worried about violating decency standards because fines are now $325,000 per incident, 10 times the penalties until a new law was signed last month.

“The rules are murky and none of (the broadcast networks’) business plans are designed to handle such huge fines,” Peter Liguori said Monday during Fox’s portion of the Television Critics Assn.’s summer press tour.

Fox, along with CBS and NBC, is urging speedy court review of an FCC decision finding some of their shows violated decency standards, opposing a delay sought by the government.

The deal initially will offer access to dozens of full-length reports and segments from the “CBS Evening News” and “60 Minutes” that have aired since 2000. But in the future, CBS News will offer footage stretching back to the 1950s.

“Up until now it’s been closed except to researchers,” CBS News senior Vice President Linda Mason said. “This opens it up to the public. It’s a sampling now, but the variety will grow over time.”

CBS partnered with CustomFlix and Amazon.com for the service, which will allow customers to put up to 10 segments or 90 minutes of video on a custom-made DVD for $24.95. The DVD is produced within two or three days and shipped with a custom-made case that identifies the segments on it, CustomFlix co-founder Dana LoPiccolo-Giles said.