Most of the major cable companies have been experimenting with various on demand internet-based video services, and apparently it's going well enough that Comcast announced it plans to officially launch its online service to subscribers by the end of this year. The program will give paid cable subscribers password-protected access on their computers, through its Fancast video portal, to any content they could otherwise view on standard or premium cable, depending on what their cable subscription includes. For now the additional online component won't incur any additional subscription fees, although the company doesn't rule out the possibility of charging extra in the future.

This is a smart play, as Comcast is already well-positioned to aggregate a critical mass of premium content thanks to its relationships with the major video content producers in both television and film. For existing Comcast subscribers (about 24 million of them currently), this offering would vault the Fancast website into position one as the video hotspot of choice ahead of Hulu and TV.com. Assuming they beat other cable providers to the punch, the service has enough clout to potentially bring in new and switching customers as well.

Moreover, this puts Comcast (and eventually the other cable companies) onto the same playing field as Netflix, who will increasingly have to compete with the selection the cable giants are able to provide. One nagging issue we hope Comcast addresses is the question of whether watching video from the Fancast portal cuts into the 250 GB broadband cap — at least one company representative has indicated that it will, which seems a bit silly. We'd also love to see them offer an online-only subscription tier for those of us who have firmly closed the door on Old Cable already and only want video content over the tubes.

If you're a current Comcast subscriber, would you ditch Hulu for Fancast, or even consider dropping a Netflix subscription once this on demand service comes online?

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