Apple Considering a Bid For Hulu?

[MacRumors]

Apple is considering a bid for Hulu, the online streaming service, according to a report from Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. is considering making a bid for the Hulu online video service, according to two people with knowledge of the auction.

Apple is in early talks that may lead to an acquisition offer for Los Angeles-based Hulu, said the people, who weren't authorized to speak publicly.

There are several companies considering making offers for Hulu, with Yahoo reportedly making a bid of $2 billion but the company wanted a five-year exclusive on streaming content. Google, AT&T and a number of other companies are also in the mix, though Microsoft reportedly dropped out of the bidding earlier this week.

If sold, Hulu would retain its exclusive content licenses from current owners Disney (where Steve Jobs is a major shareholder and sits on the board) FOX/News Corp., and Comcast/NBC.

This week Apple reported that it had $76.2 billion in cash and marketable securities on hand. In October, Steve Jobs said of the cash pile, "we strongly believe that one or more very strategic opportunities may come along that we can take that we're in a unique position to take advantage of because of our strong cash position."

Article Link: Apple Considering a Bid For Hulu?

 

[res1233]

I hope Apple can clean up Hulu's online interface... I was never a fan of it.

 

[CristobalHuet]

Very interesting. Gotta think those content deals would be really valuable to Apple, not to mention the fact Hulu is an established entity in the streaming market.

 

[nagromme]

I like Hulu—not the paid version, but the ad-supported. Normally I hate ads, but there is some TV worth watching that I don’t mind seeing ads to pay for it. Hulu has also been great when I miss a current episode of some shows.

Whoever gets it (if anyone), I hope they don’t shut down the current ad-supported model, nor replace the current highly-functional site (Flash or no!) with something worse!

And if Apple gets it, I hope both regular Hulu and Hulu Plus become platform agnostic: ad-supported Hulu on iPad! (And AppleTV.)

I can’t see myself paying for Hulu Plus when so match of what I watch on regular Hulu says “not available on mobile devices” (I know it’s the content-owners’ fault). Nor in comparison to Netflix streaming, which is also a great service. But I’d love to watch regular ad-supported Hulu on my iPad the same way I do on my iMac, without paying extra just because it’s an iPad. And if not all the content is viewable on iPad because content owners are stuck in the past? That’s tolerable as long as I’m not paying a subscription!

(The one thing I kind of like about the Apple-Hulu idea: Apple may be a best very good party to negotiate with those short-sighted content-owners and haul them into the future.)

As for Hulu’s site (and Mac app): I like them! They have some quirks (please bring back star ratings to the thumbnail views) but they work well and have lots of options. Apple could improve things, I’m sure, but Hulu is already better than so many other sites.

 

[Moyank24]

For the right price, it would be a good move for Apple. And it would make TV that much more useful.

 

[Eduardo1971]

Now this would get me to buy AppleTV. Hulu Plus has the Criterion Collection on their roster. Now that would be killer!

 

[aafuss1]

It's worth noting even if Apple did acquire Hulu, Hulu is available only to users in the U.S. This is due to not having international streaming rights for Hulu's content.

Hulu intends to get international streaming rights for their content (their Hulu support twitter often mentions this is being worked on).

Apple offers TV and movie content in many countries, while Hulu is still limited to the U.S.

Also worth noting iTunes has shows on there from studios like ABC here in Australia, HBO and CBS which are not Hulu content partners.

 

[Benjamins]

Apple rarely buys well established known companies. They usually buy small companies and bring them in house.

 

[tekker]

I hope Google will buy Hulu because I'm more of an Android guy. However I've been hearing that it's likely Yahoo will buy them.

 

[strabes]

It would make the Apple TV 2 much more useful. Right now I just use it to watch netflix and video using the Air Video app.

 

[reden]

I like Hulu—not the paid version, but the ad-supported.

The paid version is also Ad-supported.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

sorry but do not want Apple to get Hulu. They would lock it down and make sure only Apple devices work on it. Honestly I do not see much use for Hulu for Apple. Google would be my first vote. Apple the last. AT&T just one step above Apple.

 

[glemley8]

When I first read this, it said, "Apple Considered a Bird Flu".

 

[S.Jobs]

That is a little shocking. Why would they want Hulu

 

[hcho3]

Good. Netflix online streaming sucks. Maybe apple can buy hulu and give us a better plans and contents. I am just pissed off with netflix about their 60% price increase. I will take hulu!

 

[res1233]

Good. Netflix online streaming sucks. Maybe apple can buy hulu and give us a better plans and contents. I am just pissed off with netflix about their 60% price increase. I will take hulu!

If Netflix could manage to keep their streaming library consistent, and increase the amount content on it, it would be far better than it is now. Some days you can view something, other days you can't. I love the online interface, while the iOS App's interface is terrible. In fact, it's bad enough that I'd rather navigate the webpage on my iPhone to find what I'm looking for, then switch to the App to view it.

 

[sparkso]

that is NOT the way to go man

 

[Frisco]

Apple needs to buy Netflix, not Hulu and hopefully one day buy Adobe and Autodesk.

 

[netsql]

ActionScript in Lion

HULU is written in actionscript.
ActionScript HW video rendering is disabled in Lion.

If you are a developer, you know it worked before Lion.

 

[jasongarza]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Hulu the next Lala?!

 

[hachiman]

Why would Apple want to buy Hulu? Apple already has everything they need to run their own.

They have their own servers and bandwidth (iTunes store).

Excluding downloads, if they can handle 30 second preview clips, they can handle 30 minutes or 1 hour streaming shows.

All that's needed is the "rights" to stream from whomever and a few extra lines of code in iTunes for streaming.

Such a waste of money. All they're really buying is the "Hulu" brand. iTunes is more recognized in the consumers mind than Hulu. I see no point in this transaction.

 

[RastaLulz]

Sorry, but I was personally hoping Google would get this, as I am a big fan of YouTube, and I think that Hulu would be a great addition to it.

 

[Dr McKay]

Microsoft was going for it, but they backed out of it.

Microsoft walks away from talks to aquire Hulu

 

[MarximusMG]

This would really help out the Apple TV, I'm sure.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

It would be supremely ironic if Apple ended up buying Hulu seeing that it was originally set up by Fox and NBC to compete against the iTunes store. NBC briefly left iTunes, but Fox did not. NBC eventually crawled back.

Wayback Time Machine:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2007/oct/29/hulustartsprivatebetawhile