Hulu has been in great demand for quite sometime now and Google showing interest in the streaming video site has been surprising. To add to tech world’s surprise, Google is turning out to be the highest bidder for Hulu. According to Business Insider, The reported amount has been around $4 billion, which is more than double of what Google paid for YouTube. But it seems Google has had additions of a few unspecified extras, which did not oblige Hulu owners as they do not meet the conditions.
The closest bid to that of Google was of Dish, which was of $1.9 billion. Dish has even showed interest in Hulu’s technology. Apart from these two, Hulu owners have seen other interested parties such as Amazon and Yahoo. Hulu’s expectation was to get a bid which would be more than $2 billion. Google got Hulu in a fix by offering an amount which is double their expectation, but in exchange, they require bonus items.
Many have a lingering thought in their mind that Google has YouTube which has six times more unique viewers as compared to Hulu. But on the other hand, the fact is that Google might be bidding for Hulu as it had generated more than four times more video ad impressions than YouTube in August. Again, eMarketer sourced that 86.8 million people in the U.S. watch a TV show online at least once per month. It even notes that the number would increase to 125.3 million by 2015.
Reuters reported that there is still a possibility that Hulu would prefer not selling its streaming video service or its owners would decline a sale involving Google without caveats, such as blocking piracy searches. Hulu owners include News Corp., Walt Disney Co., NBC Universal, and Providence Equity Partners. The sale could even be derailed as Yahoo has been instable with its approach, noting that Carol Bratz was dismissed from their board. This could be as Yahoo was an early bidder for Hulu.
Business Insider noted that the bidders were quick to note that the Hulu owners, who are TV companies, now prefer phasing out free ad-supported content completely. This means that as soon as the current set of Hulu contracts expire in a couple of years, it would be back to the negotiating table.
However, as far as the current requirements are placed by Hulu, Dish seems to be officially the highest bidder for Hulu. Even though it does not cross the $2 billion mark, it is still the closest bid to their expectation. Google might just lose its bid to Dish. The ‘no-sell’ option is still wide open in this case.
Whatever may be the end result, but Business Insider predicts that if Hulu bids for the same, then Google or Dish would “probably end up with the prize.” It can be rightly termed as a ‘Prize’ as it has more than a million paid subscribers and the content it offers is huge with more than 260 programmers, such as NBC, Fox and ABC, according to news reports.