The technology being tested by Comcast and privately held ClearBand--which is also holding trials with three other large MSOs--could in part solve the tension between networks and cable operators that led to the nasty Charter Communication-ESPNews dispute last month. Cable networks want the extra eyeballs the PC can give them, but operators want those eyeballs watching video over a distribution channel they control, not the open Internet. "If ESPN or Charter--and we've talked to both companies --if they use a system like ClearBand, then it's game over," says ClearBand's new chief executive Jim Faust. "There is no issue."

The Comcast-ClearBand trial offers a compromise--TV on the PC, but only over MSO-controlled broadband connections. And that in turn helps local operators promote broadband Internet connections with their subscribers by offering them something they can't get over DSL or another Internet service provider, Faust points out.