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The Wall Street Journal has the scoop of the morning with its report that Intel is in talks with media companies about a plan to launch a “virtual cable TV service” that would offer a bundle of TV channels nationwide over the Internet. According to the report, Intel is making its own set-top box to carry the service and has demonstrated the user interface to the networks. The chipmaker telegraphed a move along these lines back in the fall, when it shuttered its Digital Home Group, which sold the system chips that power the Boxee Box and Google TV devices, to concentrate on next generation pay-TV set-tops and residential gateways. Why Intel thinks it will have any more like securing the necessary content rights than have Apple or Dish Network, which is to say none, is unclear. Perhaps its simply willing to write a bigger check to the networks than Apple is willing write.