According to a report in today's Wall Street Journal, both Time Warner Cable and Comcast are working with broadcasters on plans to deliver their customers TV programming via the Internet at no additional charge. According to the Journal's sources, the companies are concerned about the proliferation of free video content on the Internet, and are trying to adapt their business models.

As usual, ceaselessly-quoted Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett gets flushed and excited over the concept, telling the Journal the idea "kills two birds with one stone." Mr. Moffett apparently is suggesting the plan would lure in new subscribers, while giving cable an advantage over telcoTV or satellite. But with so much content already available for free online, it doesn't seem like it would accomplish either.

While the idea could be seen as a nice value added service for those who have no plans to cancel cable TV, it also doesn't really replicate the functionality of a Slingbox unless all content is mirrored and available. It's also not entirely clear how this would prevent customer defections, since customers who cut the cord and flock to piracy or legal systems like Hulu do so because they're free and there's either limited or no advertisements.

For the moment there's more questions (a huge one being whether this content counts against caps) than answers, until we have more detail. At the moment, this sounds like a belated attempt to appear cutting edge and capitalize on online video ad revenue by simply replicating existing online services. After all, any cable (or phone) company's worst nightmare is to be delegated to dumb pipe status by the time Internet video truly takes off.

Update: It looks like Comcast is making the media rounds with some additional detail about their plans, and are noting, among other things, that this content will count against your 250GB monthly cap.