Comcast executives said earlier this month that the company’s planned acquisition of NBC Universal stands to quicken the development of a viable business model for online video. The nation’s largest cable operator is now putting that possibility to the test with the beta version of its Fancast XFINITY TV, the new name for its On Demand Online service that it has been touting for several months.

Comcast says the XFINITY TV national beta will provide its subscribers with thousands of hours of cable programming, most of which has not previously been available online, at no extra charge. Among the 27 networks participating in XFINITY are HBO, Cinemax, TNT, Discovery, AMC, and Hallmark. The package includes every episode of The Sopranos from HBO, along with the Starz original series Crash, TNT’s The Closer and Discovery’s Man vs. Wild. Movies available on XFINITY include Slumdog Millionaire, Juno, Milk and Wall-E. Content can be viewed on up to three separate computers and/or devices.

The beta version is available only to customers who subscribe to both Comcast digital cable and high-speed Internet service, but the company says it is working on making the service available to all digital cable customers on any Internet service sometime next year.

So far the whole objective behind XFINITY and other “TV Everywhere” trials is stickiness rather than additional revenue, since the online content is largely being offered at no additional charge. But if XFINITY proves popular, it could generate demand for fatter bandwidth, enabling the company to boost its sales of higher broadband Internet tiers.

Filed under: Cable Operators, Content, VOD, Video, streaming media by Scott Sleek | Social tagging: Comcast > Discovery > HBO > NBC Universal > The Sopranos > TV Everywhere