Cable giant Comcast Corp., which for more than two years has been seeking prime-time television programs to offer on its video-on-demand service, is about to land one of its biggest prizes: a deal with Walt Disney Co. for such shows as “Desperate Housewives” and “World News with Charles Gibson,” people familiar with the matter say, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The deal is part of an anticipated content transaction that Comcast and Disney may sign as early as today that covers much of the panorama of the rapidly changing digital landscape. The broader deal includes Comcast’s purchase of Disney’s broadcast and cable programming, including ABC, ESPN, and the Disney Channel, for more than $1 billion a year. It also gives Comcast rights to use Disney promotional content on its high-speed Internet portal.

The highlight of the move is the programming that Disney has agreed to contribute to Comcast’s video-on-demand service, which enables subscribers to watch thousands of programs and movies at any time with the ability to fast forward, reverse and pause the action. In recent years, Comcast, the country’s largest cable operator, with more than 24 million subscribers, has invested heavily on a bet that the service will head off challenges to cable from other technologies that give viewers more control, such as TiVo-like digital-video recorders, iPods and Internet TV.

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