On Tuesday, an agreement was signed between Sony and the six largest U.S. cable companies, that will eventually lead to the development of a TV capable of receiving cable services in the absence of a set-top box.

Sony’s LCD set will work on the Tru2way cable platform that Comcast introduced in January. Through Tru2way, cable service integration can be done without any intermediaries.

The six companies involve in the deal are Charter Communications, Cablevision, Bright House Networks, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications and Comcast. As Comcast, with its more than 24 million subscribers, is the largest cable TV and Internet provider in the U.S., Sony seems to have created a very strong alliance.

Whether or not people will respond well to the new idea, remains to be seen; as the purchase of a new TV will be required, there is a chance that things will start a bit slow; obviously enough, only time will tell.

There are some other similar initiatives as well: at the Cable Show 2008, Panasonic announced the plan to develop its very own tru2way project and last month, the lead HDTV producer in the world, Samsung, came forward with its intention to use the tru2way technology. The search for partners is on.