Google eying Hulu

Hulu's apparently accepting initial acquisition bids starting Wednesday, and wouldn't you know it, Google's sniffing all around it. To be fair, Yahoo, Microsoft and Amazon (amongst a few others) are also interested, but it's always more fun to lead with Google since they seem to be getting their rather big hands into everything these days. According to the WSJ, bids could range from $500 million to $2 billion....but what do they know, right? They obviously haven't heard about this looming double dip recession thing.

So, someone wants to buy Hulu. But why? The owners of Hulu (Fox, NBC, ABC etc.) are busily trying to restrict their content as much as possible in order to make money off subscriptions, instead of charging more for advertising. Honestly, I can't see many people deciding to pay for Hulu, since we all got used to watching it for free.Then there's the issue of Netflix as a competitor. IF Hulu were free, it would be easier to undermine Netflix, but I'm really not sure how any potential buyer of Hulu hopes to handle Netflix. Yes, anyone reading this might have a different opinion, so please share your point of view in the comments section below.

Now, IF Google ends up scoring Hulu, it's my hope that they get rid of Hulu Plus, and increase whatever they charge for advertising. Maybe they can also come up with some kind of advertising profit sharing deal with the networks too, thus allowing them to release their programing for viewing on Hulu sooner than the current 8-10 day period. OR maybe they could just replace their current content providers; I wouldn't mind watching some HBO and Showtime on Hulu :).

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