If you’ve ever wanted to own a piece of Hulu, the television network-backed video website, you could soon have your chance. The company plans to go public with an initial public stock offering valuing the online television service as high as $2 billion, according to anonymous sources cited by the New York Times.

While many online video sites provide an alternative to televised fare, Hulu delivers actual television programming over the net, including a free, ad-supported service that brought in over $100 million last year and a new $10-per-month premium version that has already launched for select users, providing a greater selection of content and wider device support.

As things stand today, Hulu Premium cannot substitute for premium cable or satellite service, as its price indicates. But today’s broadband speeds are perfectly capable of providing high-definition television programming, so future versions of Hulu Premium could offer more programming at a higher price. Investors who bet on Hulu through this IPO would win big-time, if the company manages to cut cable and satellite television providers out of the equation, offering the same content that’s on televisions through a simple internet connection.

So far, Hulu includes programming from founding members NBC Universal, News Corp. and Walt Disney, but not CBS and some other networks. $10 buys a subscriber a wider selection of content than is available in the free version, as well as the right to view any episode from any included show. And all of the programming is available on-demand, obviating the need to pore through outdated cable menu systems and wait for DVRs to record shows, which is a rather complicated way of simply downloading content. In addition, Hulu Premium will be available on a selection of game consoles, set-top boxes and Blu-ray players. This isn’t just about watching video on computers and tablets such as the iPad – it’s aimed at the living room too.

As a publicly traded company, Hulu could have more resources to continue its expansion, making cable and satellite companies even more nervous about IP-delivered programming. By shifting the cost of the data connection and hardware to the consumer, Hulu could conceivably offer the same service for less than it would cost through cable and satellite middlemen. Another company with reason to fear Hulu is Netflix, because both companies are fighting to deliver both television shows and films over the internet, and only Hulu is partially owned by the same companies that own the content.

Hulu executives have broached the topic of an initial public offering with several investment banks, according to The Times’ sources. If Hulu goes public this fall, as those sources indicated it would, the company would have to compete with GM, which also plans an IPO, as does the content factory Demand Media.

However, a successful IPO could boost Hulu in its competition with Netflix, Apple iTunes, the upstart Boxee, and possibly Google in the race to become the dominant provider of internet-delivered television.

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