Source: The Wall Street Journal

According to an article in The Wall Street Journal, Intel Corp. is developing an Internet-based television service that it hopes to sell to U.S. consumers, a strategic shift by the chip maker as it sets its sights on the crowded pay-TV business.

Intel has for several months been pitching media companies on a plan to create a "virtual cable operator" that would offer U.S. TV channels nationwide over the Internet in a bundle similar to subscriptions sold by cable- and satellite-TV operators, the Journal reported that people familiar with the effort said.

Intel hopes to launch the service by the end of 2012.