“CBS is taking the iPhone where no iPhone has gone before,” Saul Hansell reports for The New York Times. “Today, it released an iPhone application for its TV.com site that can play full episodes of TV series, ranging from ‘C.S.I.’ to the original ‘Star Trek.’ While Hulu, a rival video site owned by NBC and Fox, has kept is content only for computers connected to the Web, CBS has been far more open with its own content.”

Hansell reports, “All sorts of video have been on the iPhone from the beginning… but the TV.com application appears to be the first with a lot of mainstream network content that can access full episodes over both the cellular network and Wi-Fi. My test of watching Spock confront a strange cube-like object in space was perfectly acceptable in quality while I was riding on the bus in New Jersey.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if the TV.com service finds an audience, particularly if CBS can promote it widely. I think this is an important and provocative development,” Hansell reports. “Pressure will also be applied to NBC, Fox and ABC if the CBS programming becomes popular on the iPhone. As much as the networks are afraid of losing control of their distribution and cutting out their affiliate stations, they are equally afraid of falling behind rivals and losing potential audience.”

Full article here.

More info and download link for the free TV.com app for iPhone and iPod touch from CBS Interctive via Apple’s iTunes App Store here.