• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, January 8, 2008

Comcast today is set to enter the growing field of companies offering online streams of TV shows online with the launch of Fancast.

Like AOL's two-year-old In2TV, Fancast is offering a host of old programs like "Hill Street Blues" and "Remington Steele." The site also has a slate of current programs including "Bones" and "The Office" from NBC/Fox's Hulu.com, CBS and Viacom.

The new Fancast site also will let users program their DVRs online -- a service that Yahoo has offered to TiVo users for more than two years.

The move seems to position Comcast as a direct competitor to the portals, which offer TV shows online, and niche services like Joost, not to mention file-sharing sites like BitTorrent. For that reason, the decision to start streaming video also calls into question the motives of Comcast -- which also is an Internet service provider -- in slowing traffic to BitTorrent and other peer-to-peer sites.

After the Associated Press reported last year that Comcast was impeding traffic to peer-to-peer sites, the company said it was just taking steps to manage its own network. Apparently, however, Comcast also has a vested interest in giving people reason to watch video at Fancast as opposed to BitTorrent or any other sites. And that should concern legislators and regulator who are facing questions of net neutrality and whether companies like Comcast should be able to block traffic at will.