• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, June 3, 2008

YouTube clips on the 50-inch plasma? The long-ballyhooed convergence of the Internet and TV is coming, perhaps within the next year, according to the top executive at Time Warner Cable.

TWC will soon offer a device--a wireless cable modem--allowing the Internet to sync up to the big screen. And further "network everything in your home," per CEO Glenn Britt, although details were not provided.

Britt said Friday at an industry conference that "the idea that the Internet is separate is going to very quickly go away--you're going to get everything on whatever device you want." He noted that Apple TV has been an unwieldy "first step," and in general, it remains "pretty hard" to bring Internet streams to the TV.

That, he said, will change in no more than two years. "It's going to be very easy," he said.

TWC has had some issues with cable programmers offering the same shows on the Internet for free that are also on cable, Britt said. That could lead to what's known as "cable bypass"--in which a consumer could simply decide there's not much added-value in a cable subscription and drop it.

In that case, however, Britt said, TWC would alter its revenue structure by raising broadband-access prices.